The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrested the chief financial officer (CFO) of Reliance Power Limited along with two other people for allegedly creating and using fake bank guarantees worth over Rs 136 crore to win a tender from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), an official told PTI on Tuesday.
The accused have been identified as Ashok Kumar Pal (50), CFO of Reliance Power Ltd; Partha Sarthi Biswal (54), managing director of Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd; and Amarnath Dutta (50), a resident of Kolkata, the EOW said in a statement cited by the news agency.
Case registered after SECI complaint
According to the statement, the case was registered on June 24 last year under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the IT Act at the EOW police station after a complaint was filed by SECI manager Biblesh Meena.
How the fraud was planned
During the investigation, it was found that Pal, along with Biswal and Dutta, worked together to arrange the fake bank guarantees through intermediaries by paying large amounts of money for creating forged documents and approvals, the report mentioned.
“Ashok Kumar Pal conspired with co-accused persons for arranging forged bank guarantees from foreign banks to secure the tender with SECI,” PTI quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police Subodh Kumar Goswami (EOW), as saying.
Police told the news agency that Reliance NU BESS Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance Power Ltd, had submitted two fake bank guarantees of Rs 68.20 crore each during a tender issued by SECI. These guarantees were claimed to be from foreign banks.
“To lend credibility, the accused allegedly used fake email communications and fabricated structured financial messaging system (SFMS) confirmations purportedly issued by the State Bank of India (SBI), which were later denied by the bank,” the statement read.
Special team formed for probe
A special team was formed under Goswami’s supervision to investigate the case and catch the accused.
All three accused were arrested on April 15 and have been sent to police custody till April 23, it added.
Pal is a qualified chartered accountant (CA) and has been working with Reliance ADAG since 2018. Biswal, who has studied till Class 12, acted as an intermediary through his company, while Dutta, who has a BCA degree and a diploma in import-export, worked as a middleman in the alleged conspiracy, the news agency reported citing police.
Further investigation in the case is ongoing, it added.