ED arrests former RCOM director Punit Garg in ₹40,000-crore loan fraud case

The ED has arrested former RCOM director Punit Garg in a ₹40,000-crore bank loan fraud investigation involving money laundering and asset concealment.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Punit Garg, a former director of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM), in connection with its money-laundering investigation into an alleged ₹40,000-crore bank loan fraud involving the company and its group entities.

ED arrests former RCOM director Punit Garg in ₹40,000-crore loan fraud case

According to the ED, Garg, who held senior managerial and directorial roles at RCOM between 2001 and 2025, was allegedly involved in the acquisition, possession, concealment, layering and dissipation of the proceeds of crime generated from the alleged fraud. The agency claims that parts of the proceeds were diverted through multiple foreign subsidiaries and offshore entities linked to RCOM.

Garg was arrested on Thursday by the ED’s special task force probing the case, officials said on Friday.

The money-laundering probe stems from a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation on August 21, 2025, under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. RCOM was earlier part of the industrialist Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.

In one instance cited by the ED, funds from the alleged proceeds of crime were diverted to purchase a luxury condominium apartment in Manhattan, New York, in the United States. During RCOM’s Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the property was allegedly sold fraudulently by Garg, officials said.

The sale proceeds, estimated at about $8.3 million, were allegedly remitted from the US under the guise of a dubious investment arrangement with a Dubai-based entity controlled by a Pakistan-linked individual, without the knowledge or consent of the resolution professional overseeing the CIRP, the ED claimed.

The investigation has also revealed that a portion of the alleged proceeds, public money raised as bank loans, was diverted towards Garg’s personal expenses, including overseas education-related payments for his children, the agency said.

Garg was produced before a special court in New Delhi, which remanded him to ED custody for nine days to enable further investigation to trace the remaining proceeds of crime, identify other beneficiaries and uncover the complete money-laundering trail.

Garg served as president handling RCOM’s global enterprise business from 2006 to 2013, and later as president (regulatory affairs) between 2014 and 2017. In October 2017, he was appointed executive director of the company, and from April 2019 to April 2025, he served as a non-executive director.