The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday said that it has arrested the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power Limited and two others for allegedly preparing and using forged bank guarantees to secure tenders.
The arrested individuals were identified as Ashok Kumar Pal (50), CFO of Reliance Power Ltd; Partha Sarthi Biswal (54), managing director of Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd; and Amarnath Dutta, an official added.
The case was registered based on a complaint filed by Biblesh Meena, manager at Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. It was alleged that Reliance NU BESS Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited, submitted two forged bank guarantees of Rs 68.20 crore each during a tender process, Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Subodh Kumar Goswami stated in a press statement.
These guarantees were purportedly issued by foreign banks, namely ACE Investment Bank (Malaysia) and FirstRand Bank Ltd (Manila, Philippines). Their authenticity was falsely supported through fake emails and fabricated Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) confirmations, purportedly from SBI, which were later denied by the bank, the statement added.
The investigation revealed that senior officials, including Ashok Kumar Pal, CFO of Reliance Power Ltd, allegedly conspired with intermediaries to arrange the fake bank guarantees, paying large sums of money to create forged documents and endorsements, the officer said.
During the investigation, it was further revealed that Ashok Kumar Pal conspired with Partha Sarthi Biswal, Amarnath Dutta, and others to arrange forged bank guarantees from foreign banks to secure the SECI tender.
All three accused were arrested on April 15 and have been taken into police custody remand till April 23, Goswami said.
According to the police, Pal is a qualified chartered accountant and has been serving as CFO of Reliance Power Ltd, working with Reliance ADAG since 2018.
Partha Sarthi Biswal, a businessman, is the managing director of the Odisha-based company Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd. He was allegedly working as an intermediary to arrange forged bank guarantees, the police said.
Amarnath Dutta, who holds a BCA and a diploma in import-export, was working as a middleman, it added.
A case has been registered under Sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonesty), 338 (forgery), 336(3) (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 340(2) (dishonest use of forged documents), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Section 66D of the IT Act, at the EOW Police Station, New Delhi.
