New Delhi: The economic crimes wing of the Delhi Police arrested the chief financial officer (CFO) of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Power Ltd and two other accomplices for cheating Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) by using forged bank guarantees to secure tenders, according to a statement issued by the police on Tuesday.
Ashok Kumar Pal, 50-year-old CFO of Reliance Power Ltd, Partha Sarthi Biswal, Managing Director of Biswal Tradelink Pvt. Limited. Ltd of Odisha and Amarnath Dutta, a resident of Kolkata, have been arrested for using forged bank guarantees issued by foreign banks and fake SBI endorsements to secure Reliance Power’s SECI tender, according to a Delhi Police statement.
The case was registered following a complaint filed by Biblesh Meena, manager of Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a public sector undertaking, under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, alleging that Reliance NU BESS Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited, submitted two forged bank guarantees of Rs. 68.20 crore each during a bidding process.
These guarantees were allegedly issued by foreign banks, namely ACE Investment Bank, Malaysia, and FirstRand Bank Ltd., Manila, Philippines, and their authenticity was falsely supported by fake emails and fabricated Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) confirmations, purportedly from SBI, which were later denied by the bank.
The investigation revealed that senior officials, including Ashok Kumar Pal, chief financial officer of Reliance Power Ltd., allegedly conspired with middlemen to arrange the fake bank guarantee, paying large sums to create forged documents and obtain endorsements.
During the investigation, it was revealed that the CFO of Reliance Power conspired with Partha Sarathi Biswal, Amar Nath Dutta and others to arrange forged bank guarantees from foreign banks to secure the tender with SECI.
A team, including investigating officer Inspector Laxman Kumar, SI Ghanshyam, was formed to arrest the accused under the supervision of Subodh Kumar Goswami, DCP of economic crimes wing. The three accused were arrested on April 15 and will remain in police custody until April 23.
