ED Files Chargesheet Against Reliance Power, Subsidiaries in 'Fake' Bank Guarantee Case

The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has filed a chargesheet against businessman Anil Ambani's group company Reliance Power Ltd. and 10 others in a money laundering case linked to issuance of an alleged fake bank guarantee of Rs 68 crore for securing a tender.

The other accused named in the prosecution complaint include former Reliance Power CFO Ashok Kumar Pal, Reliance NU BESS Ltd. and Rosa Power Supply Company Ltd. (subsidiaries of Reliance Power), Reliance Group executive Punit Narendra Garg, an Odisha-based "shell" company Biswal Tradelink Private Limited, its MD Patha Sarathi Biswal and trade financing consultant Amar Nath Dutta.

According to the agency, Biothane Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., Ravinder Pal Singh Chadha and Manoj Bhaiyasaheb, Pongde, are also among the accused.

The chargesheet has been filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at the Patiala House court in Delhi on Friday, as per officials.

The case pertains to a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore submitted to secure a tender from the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, a listed company.

The company (Reliance NU BESS) was formerly known as Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited.

The probe, as per the agency, found that Reliance Group officials were well aware that this was a "fake" bank guarantee. "Fraudulent" endorsements were being submitted to SECI from a "spoofed" email ID of SBI and when SECI detected the fraud, Reliance Group arranged a genuine Bank Guarantee from IDBI Bank within a day of intimation of the fraud by SECI.

"However, SECI refused to accept the fresh Bank Guarantee as it was submitted after the due date.

"Since Reliance NU BESS Limited had emerged as the L-2 bidder, in order to save the tender, Reliance Group officials even tried to arrange a fresh endorsement of the fake foreign Bank Guarantee from an SBI branch in Kolkata," the ED alleged.

A response from the Reliance Group is awaited.

It had earlier said Ambani was "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 claimed to have been a "victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy" in this case adding that it had made due disclosures in this context to the stock exchange on November 7, 2024.

The ED added that Reliance Group officials signed a "dummy" agreement and also obtained the "Certificate of Enlistment" of Reliance NU BESS Limited from Kolkata Municipal Corporation by submitting "bogus" address documents, it said.

However, when they again failed to get the fresh endorsement done, in order to shift the entire blame onto the intermediary, they filed a complaint against Biswal Tradelink Private Limited and its MD Partha Sarathi Biswal.

Biswal was arrested by the ED in this case apart from ex-Reliance Power CFO Ashok Kumar Pal and Dutta. They are currently lodged in jail under judicial custody.

The money laundering case stems from a November 2024 FIR of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW). It was alleged that Bhubaneswar-based shell entity Biswal Tradelink was engaged in issuing "fake" bank guarantees against commission.

Reliance Power Limited submitted this bid for a tender issued by SECI for setting up 1000 MW/2000 MWh standalone BESS projects under tariff-based competitive bidding.

The investigation has "established" the "connivance" and "mala fide" intentions of the Reliance Group in securing the SECI tender by submitting fake Bank Guarantees purportedly issued by foreign banks and their forged endorsements in the name of SBI, the ED said.

The agency also stated in the chargesheet that it has attached assets worth Rs 5.15 crore as part of this probe.

The agency added that Reliance Power, with a mala fide intent, hired the services of Biswal Tradelink to arrange a fake Bank Guarantee from FirstRand Bank, Manila, Philippines, which is a "non-existent" branch, and from ACE Investment Bank Limited, Malaysia.

"Endorsements of the fake Bank Guarantees were done by using a spoofed email ID of SBI and forged endorsement letters purportedly issued by SBI.

"A fraudulent domain, s-bi.co.in (a look-alike of genuine address sbi.co.in), was used for the said purpose," it said.

Describing the role of other accused, the ED said Reliance Power routed funds of Rs 6.33 crore from its other subsidiary, Rosa Power Supply Company Ltd. to Biswal Tradelink under the guise of bogus transportation services, in order to meet the required funding for arranging the fake Bank Guarantee.

A "fake" work order and "fake" invoices were executed by the officials of Reliance Group in collusion with accomplice Biswal.

"After arrangement of the fraudulent Bank Guarantee by Biswal Tradelink Reliance Power also paid a hefty fee of Rs 5.40 crore to the said shell entity in order to depict the entire arrangement as a genuine commercial transaction," the ED claimed.