CFO and Executive Director of Anil Ambani Company Linked to Reliance Power Arrested

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, CFO of Reliance Power Limited, in connection with a money laundering investigation involving fake bank guarantees.

Ashok Kumar Pal, CFO and Executive Director in Reliance Power Limited, was arrested in a fake bank guarantee case. (Photo credit: @gemsofbabus_)
Photo : Twitter

The Enforcement Directorate on Friday arrested a top official in Anil Ambani’s firm in a money laundering case. Ashok Kumar Pal, CFO and Executive Director in Reliance Power Limited, was arrested in a fake bank guarantee case.
“ED arrested Ashok Pal, CFO of Reliance Power yesterday night after questioning in Delhi office in a case of fake bank guarantee. He will be produced before the judge today at 9.30,” Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.
Pal was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Company in January 29, 2023.

Background of this case

Based on FIR (No. 0131/2024 dated 11.11.2024), a case was registered by EOW, Delhi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED)into a Fake Bank Guarantee racket.
Pursuant to the investigation, searches under Section 17 of PMLA are being conducted at three locations in Bhubaneswar linked to M/s Biswal Tradelink Private Limited and its directors. A property linked to an associate/operator was also searched in Kolkata.

Findings so far:

1. M/s Biswal Tradelink Pvt. Ltd. (Odisha-based), its directors, and associates are found engaged in issuance of fake Bank Guarantees against a commission of 8%.

2. Preliminary investigation indicates that the group has also facilitated fake bills for commission.

3. Multiple undisclosed bank accounts have been detected. Suspicious transactions of crores of Rupees found in these bank accounts.

4. The company is a mere paper entity – its registered office is a residential property belonging to a relative. No statutory company records were found at the address.

5. Suspicious financial transactions with multiple companies have been traced.

6. Key individuals of the group are found using the Telegram application with “disappearing messages” enabled, indicating attempts to conceal communication.

7. In a related matter, evidence seized earlier (during searches on 24.07.2025 in the case of Anil Ambani group companies) has direct linkage with the present investigation.

8. A Bank Guarantee of ₹68.2 Crore submitted to Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of M/s Reliance NU BESS Limited / M/s Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited has been established as fake.

9. In an attempt to prove that this fake bank guarantee is genuine, the group used a spoofed email domain. To create a facade of genuineness- instead of sbi.co.in, the domain s-bi.co.in was deployed to send forged communication to SECI, impersonating SBI.

10. ED has sought domain registration details of s-bi.co.in from the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

On the arrest, Reliance Power, in a statement said, “Disclosure under Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (‘Listing Regulations’) read with Para A of Part A of Schedule III of the Listing Regulations and the SEBI Circular No. SEBI/HO/CFD/PoD2/CIR/P/0155 dated November 11, 2024. We refer to our disclosure dated November 7, 2024 and November 14, 2024 whereby we have informed that the Company had lodged a criminal complaint in the matter of alleged fake endorsement of bank guarantee against EMD (issued by foreign bank), which was arranged by third party, with Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police against the third party on October 16, 2024, basis on which First Information Report (FIR) has been registered on November 11, 2024.”

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/companies/ashok-kumar-pal-cfo-and-executive-director-of-anil-ambani-company-linked-to-reliance-power-arrested-article-152980394