The State Bank of India (SBI) has officially marked Reliance Communications (RCom) and its promoter Anil D Ambani as ‘fraud’ cases and is preparing to file a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This was shared with the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The entities were tagged as fraud on June 13, 2025, under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines on managing fraud risks, and based on SBI’s internal policy, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply.

“On June 24, 2025, the bank reported classification of fraud to RBI, and is also in the process of lodging a complaint with CBI,” he stated.

The Resolution Professional of RCom also made a formal announcement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on July 1, 2025, confirming that SBI had classified the company as a fraud case.

Chaudhary informed that SBI’s total credit exposure to RCom comprises ₹2,227.64 crore in fund-based dues, covering principal, interest, and expenses as of August 26, 2016, and ₹786.52 crore in non-fund-based bank guarantees.

RCom is currently undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016. A resolution plan was approved by creditors and submitted to the NCLT Mumbai on March 6, 2020, but the court is yet to give its approval.

Additionally, SBI has filed a personal insolvency case against Anil Ambani, which is now being heard by NCLT Mumbai.

Timeline of previous fraud classification

SBI had earlier classified RCom and Anil Ambani as fraud in November 2020 and sent a complaint to the CBI on January 5, 2021. However, the complaint was returned due to a status quo order issued by the Delhi High Court on January 6, 2021, which put the matter on hold.

Later, a Supreme Court ruling on March 27, 2023, in the State Bank of India vs Rajesh Agarwal case made it mandatory for banks to give borrowers a chance to explain before labelling them as fraud.

As a result, SBI withdrew the fraud label on September 2, 2023, and restarted the process. After following the due procedure under RBI’s updated circular issued on July 15, 2024, the account was once again tagged as ‘fraud’.

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