New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate said today, October 11, that it has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, chief financial officer and executive director of Reliance's Anil Ambani Group of companies, and a close aide of Anil Ambani's.

Pal is accused of having connections with a Rs 17,000 crore bank fraud case involving Reliance Power.

Pal has been taken into custody under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Reliance Power website describes him as a "qualified chartered accountant with extensive hands-on experience of over 25 years."

The case is based on the enforcement case information report 0131/2024 filed on November 11, 2024, by the ED.

It conducted searches under Section 17 of the PMLA at three premises linked to Biswal Tradelink Private Limited and its directors in Bhubaneswar and one linked to an associate and operator in Kolkata.

So far, the ED has said that it has found that the Odisha-based company and its directors, and associates were found to have issued fake bank guarantees against a commission of 8%.

The ED said that its preliminary investigation indicates that the group has also facilitated fake bills for a commission.

The agency claims that multiple undisclosed bank accounts have been detected and suspicious transactions of crores of rupees found in these bank accounts.

The ED also says that the Odisha company is a paper entity – its registered office is a residential property belonging to a relative. No statutory company records were found at the address.

The ED claims to have found suspicious financial transactions with multiple companies and has cited the fact that key individuals of the group were found using the Telegram application with “disappearing messages” enabled, indicating attempts to conceal communication.

The ED also says that evidence seized during searches on July 24 this year in another case involving the Anil Ambani group of companies has direct links with the present investigation. The ED had raided more than 35 premises across Mumbai and Delhi in connection with this case.

Besides, a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of M/s Reliance NU BESS Limited and M/s Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited has been established as fake. ⁠In an attempt to prove that this fake bank guarantee is genuine, the group used a spoofed email domain, the ED said. To create a facade of genuineness- instead of sbi.co.in, the domain s-bi.co.in was deployed to send forged communication to SECI, impersonating SBI. The⁠ ⁠ED has sought domain registration details of s-bi.co.in from the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

Reliance Power's statement

In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Reliance Power noted that in its SEBI disclosures dated November 7 and November 14, 2024 it had said that the company had lodged a criminal complaint on October 16, 2024, with the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police in the matter of the "alleged fake endorsement of bank guarantee against EMD (issued by foreign bank), which was arranged by third party". On the basis of this, a "First Information Report (FIR) has been registered on November 11, 2024," the company said.

"As also informed, the Company and its subsidiaries acted bonafidely and are a victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy," the press release said.

Reliance Power also noted that Pal has demitted the office of executive director and CFO with immediate effect and that the ED has been granted two days' custody.

"We also wish to clarify on the media reports that Mr. Anil D. Ambani is not on the Board of Reliance Power Limited for more than 3.5 years and is not concerned with this matter in any manner," it said.

Note: This report was updated after publication to add Reliance Power's statement.

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