ED Arrests Kolkata-Based Consultant In Reliance Power Fake Bank Guarantee PMLA Probe

Mumbai: A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued summons to industrialist Anil Ambani, the agency on Thursday made its third arrest in the money laundering probe linked to Reliance Power Ltd. The ED arrested Amar Nath Dutta, a Kolkata-based consultant, in connection with the alleged submission of a forged bank guarantee worth Rs 68 crore by Reliance NU BESS Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

Earlier this week, the agency attached the immovable assets worth Rs 7,500 crore belonging to the Anil Ambani Group of companies.

According to the ED, the investigation focuses on the creation and submission of a forged bank guarantee, purportedly issued by a public sector bank, to secure a SECI project. Officials said Dutta played an active role in arranging fake bank guarantees along with Ashok Kumar Pal, the then Chief Financial Officer of Reliance Power Ltd, and Partha Sarathi Biswal, Managing Director of M/s Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd.

Both Pal and Biswal were earlier arrested in the same case involving fabricated and circulated bank guarantees, which allegedly caused a loss of over Rs 100 crore to SECI. Dutta was produced before the Additional Sessions Judge at Patiala House Courts, New Delhi, on November 6, where the court granted the ED his custody for four days, till November 10.

The money-laundering case stems from an FIR filed last year by the SECI with the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW), alleging that Reliance NU BESS Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, had submitted forged bank guarantees to the renewable energy public sector undertaking.

The arrest coincides with a fresh probe launched by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) into the Anil Ambani Group over alleged fund diversion and financial irregularities.

The Reliance Group sought to distance Anil Ambani from the controversy, stating: “We also wish to clarify on the media reports that Mr. Anil D. Ambani is not on the Board of Reliance Power Limited for more than 3.5 years and is not concerned with this matter in any manner.”

Following the searches in July at premises linked to the Anil Ambani Group of companies, the ED conducted operations at four locations, three in Bhubaneswar connected to M/s Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd, and one in Kolkata linked to arrested consultant Amar Nath Dutta. Investigators found that the registered office of Biswal Tradelink was a residential property, indicating that it functioned as a paper entity.

During the probe, the agency found that the firm had issued fake bank guarantees in return for an 8% commission, routed funds through multiple undisclosed bank accounts, and generated fake invoices to inflate transactions and launder proceeds. The ED also recovered material indicating financial links between the forged guarantees and Reliance Group entities, including Reliance NU BESS Ltd and Maharashtra Energy Generation Ltd.

During the probe, officials discovered that the accused used Telegram’s disappearing messages feature to conceal communication and coordination.

The ED said Pal, as CFO of Reliance Power, played a “crucial role” in allegedly diverting funds and approving documents related to SECI’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) tender, using the company’s credentials to secure bids.

Reliance Power, after Pal’s arrest in October, had claimed it was a “victim of fraud and forgery”, saying it lodged a police complaint after discovering the bank guarantee was fake.

The agency also found that, in an effort to make the forged bank guarantee appear authentic, Partha Sarathi Biswal allegedly created fake State Bank of India (SBI) endorsements using a spoofed email domain – sbi.17313@s-bi.co.in. Officials said the emails, designed to look like they originated from SBI, were sent to SECI officials to deceive them into accepting the forged document as genuine.

In addition, the agency identified several spoofed domains mimicking commercial banks, including lndiabank.in, lndusindbank.in, pnblndia.in, psdbank.co.in, siliguripnb.co.in, lobbank.co.in, and unionbankofIndia.co.in, each created with minor textual variations or single-character swaps. According to investigators, these domains were allegedly used by the same set of individuals involved in the fraud.

The ED said its investigation is ongoing into multiple aspects, including the identification of beneficiaries of the crime proceeds, tracing the end-use of funds, locating assets acquired through illicit means, and examining the wider conspiracy involving additional persons and entities.

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Published on: Friday, November 07, 2025, 01:34 PM IST