At a Delhi court, authorities gave the Enforcement Directorate (ED) the power to keep Ashok Kumar Pal, the chief financial officer of Reliance Power, in custody for two days. Pal is scheduled to appear at Patiala House court on Monday.
Special Judge Kiran Gupta approved the short‑term custody after the ED brought him to the judge’s residence. Pal’s lawyer, Vijay Agarwal, defended him in front of the judge.
The ED has taken Pal into custody in a probe that points to a fake bank guarantee and forged invoices that may have helped move company money to private accounts. Officers say the matter involves a forged guarantee worth more than ₹68 crore that Reliance Power submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) tender.
Pal acted under a board resolution that gave him authority to sign documents for the SECI bid. According to investigators, he collaborated with a small firm, Biswal Tradelink Pvt. Ltd., which has no $ bank‑guarantee record. The company’s director, Partha Sarathi Biswal, is already in judicial custody and helped create the forged document.
The false guarantee listed FirstRand Bank in Manila, a location where that bank does not operate. Pal also used fake transport invoices to siphon off several crores of cash. He allegedly cleared payments and processed paperwork over WhatsApp and Telegram, bypassing Reliance Power’s official systems.
The ED says Pal also used spoofed email addresses that looked like real Indian bank sites—such as s-bi.co.in instead of sbi.co.in—to run a bank‑guarantee racket that defrauded public institutions and misappropriated listed‑company funds.
Investors and regulators are watching closely as the case unfolds, highlighting the growing scrutiny of corporate financial practices in India. ()
Source: aninews
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