ED Arrests Reliance Power CFO Ashok Kumar Pal in ₹68 Crore Fake Bank Guarantee Money Laundering Case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Director of Reliance Power, accused of issuing a fake bank guarantee worth ₹68.2 crore. This fake guarantee was submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), linked to the company’s subsidiary, Reliance NU BESS Limited, formerly known as Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited.

Pal was taken into custody on Friday night following several hours of questioning by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He is expected to be produced before a special court in Delhi. The investigation revealed that the guarantee was part of a fraudulent scheme orchestrated by an Odisha-based company, Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd, with no credible business history. The company and its managing director, Partha Sarathi Biswal, were previously under ED investigation and Biswal was arrested in August for his alleged involvement.

The ED’s probe uncovered that forged bank guarantees, fake invoices, and spoofed email domains such as “s-bi.co.in” mimicking the State Bank of India’s official email domain, were used to carry out the scam. Biswal Tradelink allegedly charged an 8% commission for issuing these fake guarantees.

The case originated from a 2024 FIR registered by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing. Allegations include commission payments and diversion of public funds from Reliance Power, a publicly listed company with over 75% public shareholding.

This arrest is a significant step in the ED’s broader investigation into the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group’s financial irregularities, including a larger ₹17,000 crore loan fraud case involving Yes Bank and multiple group companies. The investigation has also led to summons and questioning of senior Reliance Group officials, including Anil Ambani.

Ashok Kumar Pal, a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years of experience and Reliance Power’s CFO since January 2023, allegedly played a central role in submitting the fake bank guarantee as part of the SECI battery energy storage tender and in helping execute the fraudulent scheme. The ED continues its investigation to uncover further involvement and is actively pursuing custodial interrogation of Pal to gather more evidence.