New Delhi, Oct 11: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Pal, Chief Financial Officer of Anil Ambani’s group company Reliance Power, in a money laundering case linked to a purported Rs 68.2 crore fake bank guarantee, official sources said on Saturday. Pal was taken into custody late Friday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after questioning by the agency. He is scheduled to be produced before a special court on Saturday, with the ED seeking his remand for custodial interrogation.
The case involves a bank guarantee submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited, a Reliance Power subsidiary formerly known as Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited, which was later found to be fake.
The ED has identified Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink as the company allegedly operating a racket providing fake bank guarantees to business groups. During earlier investigations in August, the agency carried out searches at the company and its promoters, and arrested its Managing Director, Partha Sarathi Biswal.
“The investigation revealed that the company used a fake email domain closely resembling that of the State Bank of India to create a facade of authenticity,” a senior ED official said. “It also facilitated forged bills and conducted suspicious transactions worth crores through multiple undisclosed bank accounts.”
The probe traces back to a November 2024 FIR filed by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW), alleging that the company charged an 8 percent commission for issuing fake bank guarantees.
Reliance Group has maintained that Reliance Power was “a victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy” in the case. A group spokesperson noted, “A criminal complaint was lodged by us against the third party with Delhi Police’s EOW in October 2024, and due process of law will follow.”
Preliminary ED investigations indicated that the accused company was a “mere paper entity,” with its registered office at a residential property belonging to a relative of Biswal, and no company records were found during searches.
The development marks the latest in the ED’s ongoing probe into the Anil Ambani group over multi-crore bank frauds, highlighting the growing scrutiny of corporate governance and financial compliance in major industrial groups.
