Anil Ambani’s Aide and Senior Reliance Power Executive Taken into ED Custody

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, an aide of Anil Ambani and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power, in connection with a fake bank guarantee case.

Pal, who also serves as the executive director at Reliance Power, has been implicated in a suspected Rs 68.2 crore bogus bank guarantee racket. Pal, a Chartered Accountant, was appointed CFO of Reliance Power on January 29, 2023, and has been associated with the company for over seven years. The case stems from an FIR filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in 2024, involving a fake guarantee submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a public sector company under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

According to the ED, the fraudulent bank guarantee was issued in the names of Reliance NU BESS Limited and Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited, both part of the Anil Ambani group. The alleged racket involved Biswal Tradelink, an Odisha-based company, whose managing director Partha Sarathi Biswal was arrested in August for allegedly facilitating the fake guarantees.

The ED stated that the fraudsters attempted to make the bank guarantees appear genuine by using a spoofed email domain to impersonate the State Bank of India (SBI). Communications with SECI were conducted via “s-bi.co.in” instead of the official “sbi.co.in” domain. For arranging these fake guarantees, Biswal Tradelink reportedly charged an 8% commission.

The arrest of Ashok Pal marks a significant development as the ED expands its investigation into alleged financial irregularities within the Reliance Group. Authorities are now examining the broader network involved in the creation and use of bogus bank guarantees in corporate dealings.