The National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Mumbai bench will hear State Bank of India’s request to withdraw a “fraudulent” tag it sought for Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL) on July 5.

On the next hearing date, the tribunal has also asked the country’s largest lender to produce further evidence and data.

In a volte-face, the country’s largest lender on Wednesday moved the tribunal seeking to withdraw the fraud tag on RITL, following an internal forensic audit by SBI that allegedly found questionable transactions worth ₹5,500 crore. The alleged transactions were found in the accounts of three Anil Ambani three firms - Reliance Communications and its subsidiaries Reliance Telecom and RITL.

This u-turn comes after Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Projects and Property Management Services, an affiliate firm of Reliance Jio Infocomm, moved the NCLT to seek the audit report from RITL’s committee of creditors.

The move also in on the back of a consensus decision by the lenders that a fraud tag would derail billionaire Reliance Projects’ plans to takeover RITL Ltd. Reliance Projects had emerged as the successful bidder in the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of RITL.

RITL had moved the Delhi High Court on January 6, 2021, and got a stay against SBI, while the court also ordered to maintain the status quo.

The matter had come up for hearing before NCLT today.

comment COMMENT NOW