The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Reliance Power Ltd. and 10 others in a money laundering case centred on an alleged fake bank guarantee submitted to secure a tender worth Rs 68 crore.
The agency said the prosecution complaint was filed at the Patiala House court in Delhi on Friday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The list of accused includes former Reliance Power CFO Ashok Kumar Pal, group subsidiaries Reliance NU BESS Ltd. and Rosa Power Supply Company Ltd., Reliance Group executive Punit Narendra Garg, Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Private Limited, its managing director Patha Sarathi Biswal and trade financing consultant Amar Nath Dutta.
Biothane Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., Ravinder Pal Singh Chadha and Manoj Bhaiyasaheb Pongde are also named.
The case stems from a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore submitted on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited for a tender issued by the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI). The company was earlier known as Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited.
According to the ED, Reliance Group officials were aware that the guarantee was “fake”.
The agency said “fraudulent” endorsements were sent to SECI using a “spoofed” SBI email address and that the fraud came to light only after SECI flagged the discrepancies.
Reliance Group then arranged a genuine guarantee from IDBI Bank within a day, but SECI rejected it 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 said.
A response from the Reliance Group is awaited.
The company 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”, and described itself as a “victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy”, referring to disclosures it made to the stock exchange on November 7, 2024.
The chargesheet also states that Reliance Group officials signed a “dummy” agreement and obtained a “Certificate of Enlistment” for Reliance NU BESS Limited from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation using “bogus” address documents. After failing to secure a fresh endorsement of the bank guarantee, the group filed a police complaint against Biswal Tradelink and its managing director.
Biswal was arrested along with former CFO Ashok Kumar Pal and Dutta. All three are in judicial custody.
The money laundering investigation originates from a November 2024 FIR filed by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing, which alleged that Biswal Tradelink was involved in issuing “fake” bank guarantees against commission.
Reliance Power had bid for a SECI tender to set up 1000 MW/2000 MWh standalone BESS projects under tariff-based competitive bidding.
The ED said the investigation has “established” the “connivance” and “mala fide” intentions of the Reliance Group in securing the tender by submitting forged guarantees purportedly issued by foreign banks, along with fake endorsements in the name of SBI.
The agency said Reliance Power hired Biswal Tradelink to arrange a fake guarantee from FirstRand Bank in Manila, described as a “non-existent” branch, and from ACE Investment Bank Limited in Malaysia.
Endorsements were carried out using a spoofed domain, “s-bi.co.in”, which resembled the official “sbi.co.in”.
The ED also said Reliance Power routed Rs 6.33 crore from its subsidiary Rosa Power Supply Company to Biswal Tradelink under the guise of bogus transportation services.
A “fake” work order and “fake” invoices were used to show this as a commercial transaction. The agency claimed Reliance Power later paid Rs 5.40 crore to Biswal Tradelink after the fake bank guarantee was arranged.
Assets worth Rs 5.15 crore have been attached as part of the investigation.