New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Pal, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power, a company under industrialist Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, in connection with a money laundering case involving a fake bank guarantee worth ₹68 crore.
Pal was taken into custody on Friday night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after being questioned by the agency. He will be presented before a special court on Saturday, where the ED will seek his custodial remand.
The case involves a bank guarantee of ₹68.2 crore submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) by Reliance NU BESS Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Power. Investigators found that the guarantee, purportedly issued by FirstRand Bank in Manila, Philippines, was fake, as the bank has no branch there.
The Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink, run by Partha Sarathi Biswal, allegedly provided the forged guarantee. The ED arrested Biswal earlier in August, calling his firm a “paper entity” used to issue fake guarantees for a commission of 8%. The firm even used a forged email domain s-bi.co.in to mimic the State Bank of India (sbi.co.in) and appear genuine.
Sources said Pal played a crucial role in fund diversion and document approvals for SECI’s BESS tender. He allegedly approved releases and facilitated paperwork through Telegram and WhatsApp, bypassing Reliance Power’s internal SAP/vendor master workflow.
The money laundering probe originates from a November 2024 FIR filed by the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
In response, Reliance Power stated that it was a victim of fraud and forgery, having already filed a criminal complaint against the third-party firm in October 2024. The company said it made due disclosures to the stock exchange on November 7, 2024 and that the legal process would take its course.
