The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Anil Ambani–led Reliance Power Limited and several associated entities, alleging that the company used forged foreign bank guarantees to qualify for a major battery energy storage project floated by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (Seci).
The charges stem from an ED investigation triggered by FIRs filed with the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing — one by SECI against Reliance NU BESS Limited, and another by Reliance NU BESS itself against Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Private Limited. Reliance NU BESS bid for SECI’s tender to develop 1000 MW/2000 MWh standalone Battery Energy Storage System projects, a process that required a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore.
As per the media report, Investigators say that instead of obtaining a valid guarantee endorsed by an Indian branch of the issuing bank or by SBI — as mandated — Reliance Group officials hired Biswal Tradelink to procure fraudulent guarantees. These were purportedly issued by a non-existent FirstRand Bank branch in Manila and by ACE Investment Bank Limited in Malaysia. ED alleges that the endorsements were then fabricated using a spoofed email domain, s-bi.co.in, created to mirror SBI’s official email address.
According to the ED, the operation was financed by routing Rs 6.33 crore from the group company, Rosa Power Supply Company Limited, to Biswal Tradelink under the guise of transportation services that never occurred. Reliance officials allegedly generated fake work orders, invoices and supporting documents in collusion with the intermediary. An additional Rs 5.40 crore was recorded as a “fee” payment to Biswal Tradelink to mask the irregularities.
The fraud came to light when SECI detected anomalies in the guarantee and alerted Reliance. The company then secured a valid IDBI Bank. guarantee within 24 hours, but the tender deadline had expired, and SECI rejected it. To keep its L-2 bid alive, Reliance officials allegedly tried to obtain a fresh endorsement of the original fake guarantee from an SBI branch in Kolkata. This involved creating a dummy agreement and procuring a “Certificate of Enlistment” from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation using falsified address documents, the chargesheet states.
When these attempts failed, Reliance NU BESS complained Biswal Tradelink and its managing director — a move the ED suggests was intended to shift responsibility onto the intermediary. The agency says its probe has “established the connivance and malicious intentions” of Reliance Group officials in securing the tender using forged guarantees and spoofed SBI endorsements. Reliance Power’s chief financial officer, Ashok Kumar Pal, has been arrested and remains in judicial custody along with other alleged facilitators. Just before filing the chargesheet, the ED attached assets worth Rs 5.15 crore identified as proceeds of crime.
The case is now before a special PMLA court, where further hearings will determine the criminal liability of the accused entities and individuals.