“Fraud Tag Led To 'Civil Death', Audit Was Inconclusive & Incompetent”: Anil Ambani Tells Bombay High Court

Punching holes in the forensic audit report, relied by the consortium of banks to declare his loan accounts as 'fraud', industrialist Anil Ambani on Friday told the Bombay High Court that the auditor, who carried out the exercise to prepare a report was 'incompetent' and has given an 'inconclusive' finding.

A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad is hearing appeals filed by the Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and the IDBI Bank challenging the order of a single-judge, who had stayed fraud classification proceedings initiated by the three banks, against the founder and chairman of the Reliance Group, after prima facie finding 'serious defects' in the forensic audit relied upon by the said banks.

Earlier this week, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate Aspi Chinoy made detailed submissions against the findings of Justice Milind Jadhav, who stayed the fraud classification proceedings by an order passed on December 24, 2025. 

On Friday, Senior Advocate Gaurav Joshi appeared on behalf of Ambani and told the judges that the fraud proceedings initiated against him based on the audit report resulted in his client's 'civil death' as he could not then borrow money or conduct his business. 

"This is civil death... I can't borrow money, I can't conduct business etc" Joshi argued.

The senior counsel argued that the audit report, if read is nothing but "inconclusive, incomplete and error-ridden."

"The auditor has in his reply categorically stated that no conclusion of fraud or breach of trust is drawn in the Report qua my client and his 3 Companies' accounts which were investigated. The entire exercise of preparing the Report is rendered futile as not all the accounts were examined by the auditor. Out of the 594 bank accounts only 346 accounts were received (by the auditor) for examination. Thus, more than 40 per cent of the accounts were not examined," Joshi highlighted. 

Further, Joshi pointed out that the audit was carried out after his client's company underwent Insolvency proceedings and a Resolution Professional was appointed. 

"The BDO LLP (Auditor) never questioned me or neither had any communications with me... By the time their audit started I was out of control... There was some other person... I was suspended... The so-called Forensic Audit was conducted solely on information and documentation furnished by the Corporate Debtor, the Resolution Professional and the Lenders and most importantly erstwhile Directors or Management Personnel of the Company were never afforded an opportunity to offer their explanation," Joshi argued. 

 Further, Joshi emphasised that the audit carried out by BDO LLP was not a 'forensic' audit but an 'accounts' audit as it did not follow the auditing standards. 

"This entity BDO LLP is an accounting consulting firm... I ask myself, which Statute in India recognises an accounting consulting firm or provides qualification for an accounting consulting firm to conduct forensic audits. None, is the answer. Yet, this entity was appointed in non-conformation with the provisions of the RBI Master Circular 2024," Joshi argued. 

In his submissions, Joshi pointed out that Reliance Communications (RCom) had some other subsidiaries which are 'single economic unit' and yet the BDO LLP in its report, treated the the mere transfer of funds within different entities belonging to same economic unit as "diverging of funds." 

The judges will continue hearing the arguments on Saturday morning.