The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police has apprehended the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power Ltd, along with two others, for deceiving Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) through the use of counterfeit bank guarantees in tender bids. Ashok Kumar Pal, the 50-year-old CFO of Reliance Power Ltd, Partha Sarthi Biswal, managing director of Biswal Tradelink Pvt. Ltd, and Amarnath Dutta from Kolkata were taken into custody for presenting forged bank guarantees from foreign banks and falsified SBI endorsements to secure the SECI tender for Reliance Power.
The arrests were made following a complaint by Biblesh Meena, Manager at SECI, a public sector entity under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The complaint alleged that Reliance NU BESS Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited, submitted two counterfeit bank guarantees of Rs. 68.20 crore each during a tender process. These guarantees, purportedly from ACE Investment Bank, Malaysia, and FirstRand Bank Ltd., Manila, Philippines, were supported by fake emails and fabricated SFMS confirmations supposedly from SBI, which were later disclaimed by the bank.
Investigations unveiled a conspiracy involving senior officials, including Ashok Kumar Pal, the CFO of Reliance Power Ltd., who allegedly colluded with intermediaries to orchestrate the fraudulent bank guarantee scheme by paying substantial amounts to fabricate documents and obtain endorsements. The probe further disclosed that the Reliance Power CFO, in collaboration with Partha Sarathi Biswal, Amar Nath Dutta, and others, orchestrated the procurement of forged bank guarantees from foreign banks to secure the SECI tender.
A dedicated team, led by Inspector Laxman Kumar and SI Ghanshyam, under the supervision of DCP Subodh Kumar Goswami from the economic offences wing, was instrumental in apprehending the accused individuals. The trio, arrested on April 15, has been placed in police custody until April 23.
