MUMBAI, June 2 -- A special court on Monday permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to formally arrest former Group Managing Director of the Reliance Communications (RCom) Group Amitabh Jhunjhunwala in connection with the alleged Rs.2,929-crore Reliance Communications (RCom) loan fraud case, after he was produced before the court from Delhi's Tihar Jail pursuant to a warrant. Special judge Dr JP Darekar allowed the CBI's plea seeking permission to arrest Jhunjhunwala, who was already in judicial custody in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Jhunjhunwala's defence team, advocates Rahul Agarwal and Reeti Upadhyay, along with senior advocate Mudit Jain appearing through video conferencing, opposed the plea and filed objections. They submitted that Jhunjhunwala suffers from a spine fracture and a heart ailment and needs to use a brace. After hearing both sides, the court ruled in favour of the investigating agency. Following the order permitting arrest, the CBI informed the court that the process of effecting the arrest and completing related legal formalities would require additional time as much of the day had passed in arguments and adjudication of the application. Taking note of the circumstances, the court observed that this was a "peculiar situation" as the accused had been brought from a distant place. The court remanded Jhunjhunwala to judicial custody till June 12 and directed that he be lodged in Arthur Road jail. Considering his ailments, the court directed prison authorities to permit him to wear the brace and take his medicines in accordance with prison rules. The case arose from a complaint lodged by the State Bank of India (SBI), the lead lender in a consortium that had extended credit facilities to RCom. According to the complaint, the lenders suffered a wrongful loss of Rs.2,929 crore after loan funds were allegedly diverted and misused in violation of sanctioned purposes. 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 agency alleged that funds borrowed from banks were routed through a complex network of transactions and entities, resulting in substantial losses to public sector lenders. The proceedings on Monday came after weeks of litigation surrounding the CBI's efforts to secure Jhunjhunwala's production before the Mumbai court. In April, Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court allowed the agency's application seeking his production pursuant to a transit warrant issued by the Mumbai special court. However, the earlier warrant could not be executed within the stipulated period owing to logistical constraints and Jhunjhunwala's custody in a parallel ED case in Delhi. After the warrant lapsed, the Mumbai court issued a fresh transit production warrant. While doing so, the court recorded that prison authorities had informed it that same-day physical production was "neither feasible nor practicable" as escort and travel logistics required advance planning. The Rouse Avenue Court subsequently permitted execution of the fresh warrant on May 29 and directed authorities to ensure appropriate medical care during the transfer process, paving the way for his production before the Mumbai court on Monday. Jhunjhunwala was arrested by the ED earlier this year in a separate probe on alleged diversion of funds involving Reliance Home Finance and Reliance Commercial Finance....