Pal was taken into custody on Friday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after being questioned by ED officials. He will be produced before a special court, where the agency is expected to seek his custodial remand
Anil Ambani. File Pic
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Pal, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power, in a money laundering case linked to an alleged fake bank guarantee worth Rs 68.2 crore. Official sources confirmed the arrest on Saturday.
According to the news agency PTI, Pal was taken into custody on Friday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after being questioned by ED officials. He will be produced before a special court, where the agency is expected to seek his custodial remand.
The case revolves around a fake bank guarantee submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) by Reliance NU BESS Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Power. The company had provided a guarantee supposedly from FirstRand Bank in Manila, Philippines, a bank that has no branch in that country, according to the ED.
As per the PTI, the ED alleges that Pal played a “crucial” role in the diversion of funds and was authorised by the company’s board to finalise and sign documents for SECI’s battery energy storage systems (BESS) tender. He allegedly approved fund releases and handled paperwork via platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, bypassing standard approval workflows.
The money laundering case stems from a November 2024 FIR filed by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which accused Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink of running a racket that issued fake bank guarantees for an 8 per cent commission. The company also allegedly used a deceptive email domain — s-bi.co.in, closely resembling sbi.co.in — to impersonate the State Bank of India in communications with SECI.
In August, the ED had raided Biswal Tradelink’s premises and arrested its managing director, Partha Sarathi Biswal. The firm’s registered office was found to be a residential property belonging to a relative of Biswal, raising suspicions of it being a shell entity.
Reliance Group, in a statement issued last November, said it was a "victim of fraud, forgery and conspiracy," and had lodged a criminal complaint against the third party with Delhi Police’s EOW in October 2024. The group also said it had made the necessary disclosures to stock exchanges on November 7, 2024.
(With PTI inputs)
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