MUMBAI: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday remanded former Group Managing Director of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom) to the agency’s custody till June 5 in connection with the alleged ₹2,929-crore RCom loan fraud case.Former RCom MD remanded in CBI custody in ₹2,929-cr loan fraud caseSpecial judge Dr JP Darekar passed the order after Jhunjhunwala was produced before the court following his formal arrest by the CBI on Monday. The agency told the court that although it had already filed a charge sheet in the case, further investigation remained open and Jhunjhunwala’s custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth the alleged conspiracy, identify the “ultimate beneficiaries” of the allegedly diverted loan amounts and ascertain the role of public servants.The custody order came two days after the same court permitted the CBI to formally arrest Jhunjhunwala following his production from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, pursuant to a prisoner transit warrant.Jhunjhunwala was lodged in Tihar jail in connection with a separate money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The CBI had spent several weeks securing his production before the Mumbai court after earlier transit warrants could not be executed owing to logistical constraints and his custody status in the parallel Delhi proceedings.The CBI’s case arose from a complaint lodged by the State Bank of India (SBI), the lead lender in an 11-bank consortium that had extended credit facilities to RCom. According to the complaint, the SBI suffered a wrongful loss of ₹2,929 crore after loan funds were allegedly diverted and misused in violation of sanctioned purposes, while the losses to the consortium were pegged at ₹6,015 crore.Acting on the complaint, the CBI registered an FIR in August 2025 against RCom, its promoter Anil Ambani and others on allegations including criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust. The CBI said that the overall loan exposure of RCom amounted to ₹19,694.33 crore involving 17 public sector banks.The CBI filed its first charge-sheet in the case June 28 against 16 accused, including RCom, five former senior company executives and 10 bank officials. Jhunjhunwala was not named in the charge-sheet.According to the CBI, as Group MD of RCom, Jhunjhunwala controlled key aspects of the company’s corporate finance, banking operations and utilisation of funds. He coordinated with senior bank officials in relation to loans and advances obtained by the company and loan funds were utilised under his directions, resulting in losses to lenders, the CBI said.According to the agency, the present case is one among several investigations involving Reliance group entities. The CBI has registered six other FIRs against RCom, Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL) and Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) on complaints lodged by public sector banks and the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), all of which remain under investigation.