The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Pal, chief financial officer of Reliance Power Ltd and a close aide of industrialist Anil Ambani, in a money-laundering case linked to a Rs 68 crore fake bank guarantee.
Pal is the first senior executive of the Reliance ADA Group to be held in this case. Anil Ambani, certain current and past senior executives of his group firms and several bank officials are facing ED probe for their alleged role in another Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud case.
Pal, who was also inducted into the company’s board as an executive director last year, was arrested on Friday.
Agency Gets his 2-Day Custody
A Delhi court on Saturday remanded him in ED’s custody for two days. Reliance Power issued astatement Saturday evening saying that Pal has demitted the office of executive director and CFO with immediate effect “pending the ongoing matter and in order to assist the investigation”.
It said the probe was initiated after the company lodged a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police in October 2024. TP “third party” arranged the bank guarantee from a foreign bank and Reliance Power and its subsidiaries acted in a bonafide manner, it said, claiming that the company is “a victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy”. The statement said Anil Ambani has not been on Reliance Power’s board for the past more than three and a half years and “is not concerned with this matter in any manner”.
The federal agency made its first arrest in the bank guarantee case on August 1. It arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, managing director of Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd, for allegedly arranging the fake bank guarantee that a Reliance Power subsidiary had sought for participating in a Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) tender. His company received `5.40 crore from Reliance Power for arranging the bank guarantee and related documents, according to the ED.
ED officials said Pal played a crucial role in the diversion of funds from Reliance Power to pay Biswal Tradelink. They said Reliance Power’s board had empowered Pal among others to finalise, approve, sign and executeall documents for the SECI tender, and to use the company’s financial capability for the bid. He played a crucial role in the planning, supervision, funding and concealment of the forged bank guarantee, with an intention to cheat the state-run undertaking, said the officials.
Pal also had a vital role in selecting Biswal Tradelink, a small entity operating from a residential address with no credible track record on arranging bank guarantees, they said. The Reliance Power subsidiary submitted the bank guarantee purportedly from a Manila branch of FirstRand Bank, although the bank has no branch in the Philippines, said a person in the know.
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Pal is the first senior executive of the Reliance ADA Group to be held in this case. Anil Ambani, certain current and past senior executives of his group firms and several bank officials are facing ED probe for their alleged role in another Rs 17,000 crore loan fraud case.
Pal, who was also inducted into the company’s board as an executive director last year, was arrested on Friday.
Agency Gets his 2-Day Custody
A Delhi court on Saturday remanded him in ED’s custody for two days. Reliance Power issued astatement Saturday evening saying that Pal has demitted the office of executive director and CFO with immediate effect “pending the ongoing matter and in order to assist the investigation”.
It said the probe was initiated after the company lodged a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police in October 2024. TP “third party” arranged the bank guarantee from a foreign bank and Reliance Power and its subsidiaries acted in a bonafide manner, it said, claiming that the company is “a victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy”. The statement said Anil Ambani has not been on Reliance Power’s board for the past more than three and a half years and “is not concerned with this matter in any manner”.
The federal agency made its first arrest in the bank guarantee case on August 1. It arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, managing director of Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd, for allegedly arranging the fake bank guarantee that a Reliance Power subsidiary had sought for participating in a Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) tender. His company received `5.40 crore from Reliance Power for arranging the bank guarantee and related documents, according to the ED.
ED officials said Pal played a crucial role in the diversion of funds from Reliance Power to pay Biswal Tradelink. They said Reliance Power’s board had empowered Pal among others to finalise, approve, sign and executeall documents for the SECI tender, and to use the company’s financial capability for the bid. He played a crucial role in the planning, supervision, funding and concealment of the forged bank guarantee, with an intention to cheat the state-run undertaking, said the officials.
Pal also had a vital role in selecting Biswal Tradelink, a small entity operating from a residential address with no credible track record on arranging bank guarantees, they said. The Reliance Power subsidiary submitted the bank guarantee purportedly from a Manila branch of FirstRand Bank, although the bank has no branch in the Philippines, said a person in the know.
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