The Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday remanded Gautam Bhailal Doshi to five days of Enforcement Directorate custody till June 18 in connection with an alleged money laundering case involving Reliance Communications.
Doshi, a former director of Reliance Telecom and one of the Group Managing Directors of the Reliance ADA Group, was arrested by the financial probe agency and produced before Vacation Judge Gaurav Rao at his residence around 8 AM. While the Enforcement Directorate originally sought a 14-day custodial remand to facilitate its ongoing investigation, the court deemed a five-day custody period sufficient after considering the legal arguments presented by both the agency and the defense counsel.
Core Allegations of Financial Deception and Diversion
The primary allegations leveled by the Enforcement Directorate focus on credit facilities obtained by Reliance Communications, M/s Reliance Telecom Ltd., and M/s Reliance Infratel Ltd., collectively referred to as the Reliance Anil Dherajlal Ambani Group. The agency alleges that the group secured these credit facilities from a consortium of banks, as well as several non-consortium banks, through misrepresentation and deceptive practices. According to investigators, the total outstanding amounts from these banking institutions, which are now classified as proceeds of crime, stand at approximately Rs 40,000 crores. The agency contends that instead of using the funds for their sanctioned corporate purposes, the group diverted the loan amounts into mutual funds, domestic group companies, foreign bank accounts, and offshore entities.
Registration Begins for FutureCrime Summit 2026, India’s Largest Cybercrime Conference
Role of the Accused Under Judicial Scrutiny
In its remand order, the court observed that the evidentiary material collected during the multi-year investigation indicates Doshi was deeply embedded in the management, supervision, and control of the group’s financial framework. Investigators stated that Doshi exercised executive banking authority over 161 bank accounts maintained by 105 group entities and served as a member of the company’s Audit Committee. The court noted that corporate records, including a specific email dated September 21, 2012, enclosing a spreadsheet titled “Company Details.xls”, show that financial operations were regularly escalated to him. The material indicates that he was actively entrusted with handling complex overseas financing arrangements, foreign currency convertible bond issuances, and offshore corporate structures.
Defense Cites Cooperation and Medical Grounds
The counsel representing the 74-year-old accused strongly opposed the remand application, arguing that Doshi had cooperated consistently with the probe since the recording of his formal statement under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on January 27, 2026. The defense submitted that there were no grounds to suggest the accused had compromised the ongoing inquiry and requested the court to reject the custody application on account of his advanced age and pre-existing medical ailments. While the court proceeded with the five-day remand order to allow investigators to trace the complete fund trail, it directed that the accused be provided with a writing pad and materials as requested by his counsel. A separate request for shaving equipment was declined by the court citing underlying security concerns.
