The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested the chief financial officer (CFO) of Reliance Power Limited (RPL) as part of a money laundering probe linked to issuance of an alleged fake bank guarantee of Rs 68 crore involving companies of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. “The arrested CFO, Ashok Kumar Pal, was summoned for questioning at Delhi headquarters and was arrested late on Friday night,” a source said. ED has been granted two-day custody of Pal, who is a close aide of industrialist Anil Ambani and allegedly played a crucial role in the fraud. In August, the ED had arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, the MD of Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd (BTPL), for allegedly arranging fake bank guarantees worth Rs 68.2 crore that were provided by Reliance Power Ltd for a Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI) tender. “Probe has revealed that BTPL fraudulently arranged and submitted fake bank guarantees of Rs 68.2 crores along with forged SBI endorsements and fabricated confirmations for a SECI tender. For providing this bank guarantee, Rs 5.40 crore have been received by BTPL from Reliance Power Ltd,” the ED alleged in a statement. The ED is investigating allegations of illegal diversion of loans worth around Rs 3,000 crore disbursed by Yes Bank to the group’s companies between 2017 and 2019. The ED is also examining whether there was a quid pro quo involved in the loan — specifically, if bribes were paid to bank officials, including Yes Bank promoters. On July 24, multiple ED teams carried out searches at over 35 locations in Mumbai and concluded their investigation on July 27. BTPL was also among the companies searched by the ED. “Pal is the CFO of RPL, a listed company where the public holds more than 75% shares. He played a crucial role in the diversion of funds from a publicly listed company. Probe has revealed that board resolution empowered him (and others) to finalise, approve, sign and execute all documents for SECI’s BESS tender, and to use RPL’s financial capability for the bid,” a source said, referring to the SECI’s battery energy storage system tender. “During the investigation, the ED has also found that he submitted a bogus bank guarantee of over Rs 68 crore to SECI, with an intention to cheat this PSU. He played a crucial role in the planning, supervision, funding, and concealment of the forged bank guarantee used in the SECI tender,” the source said. According to ED, they found that Pal played a vital role in selecting BTPL to provide the fake bank guarantee. “BTPL is a small entity operating from a residential address with no credible bank guarantee track record, without vendor diligence, executing a non-genuine bank guarantee,” the source added. The ED has also allegedly found that Pal played a crucial role in diverting money through fake transport invoices of crores. “He approved releases and facilitated paperwork via Telegram, WhatsApp, outside normal SAP/vendor master workflow. The degree of fraud can be gauged from the fact that the Reliance Power group submitted a bank guarantee from FirstRand Bank, Manila, Philippines. The fact is that there exists no branch of FirstRand Bank in the Philippines,” the source said. According to the source, Pal played a crucial part in using the services of a fake business guarantee racket which uses fake and spoofed domains of commercial banks in India, such as sbi.17313@s bi.co.in. “This is not the official bank domain but a look-alike created by inserting a hyphen into ‘sbi’ (i.e., ‘s-bi’). The fake BG racket used by Pal also uses lookalike bank domains such as lndianbank.in, lndusindbank.in, pnblndia.in, psdbank.co.in, siliguripnb.co.in, Iobbank.co.in and unionbankoflndia.co.in, each employing single-character swaps (notably ‘l’ in place of ‘i’) or minor textual tweaks intended to visually pass as official,” the source explained. A statement issued by the Reliance Power Limited said, “We refer to our disclosure dated November 7, 2024 and November 14, 2024 whereby we have informed that the company had lodged a criminal complaint in the matter of alleged fake endorsement of bank guarantee against EMD (issued by foreign bank), which was arranged by third party, with Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police against the third party on October 16, 2024, basis on which FIR has been registered on November 11, 2024.” “The company and its subsidiaries acted bonafidely and are a victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy. In this matter, Ashok Kumar Pal, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Company has been arrested by ED. Pending the ongoing matter and in order to assist the investigation, Pal has demitted the office of Executive Director and CFO with immediate effect. The formal letter will follow and the requisite disclosure will be made. We also wish to clarify on the media reports that Anil D. Ambani is not on the Board of Reliance Power Limited for more than 3.5 years and is not concerned with this matter in any manner,” it said.
