The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet accusing Reliance Power Limited and its subsidiary Reliance NU BESS of deliberately using forged bank guarantees to secure a major Solar Energy Corporation of India tender for setting up 1,000 MW / 2,000 MWh battery energy storage projects. The case centres on an allegedly fake guarantee worth ₹68.2 crore, which the ED says was procured through an Odisha-based shell firm, Biswal Tradelink Private Limited.
Investigators say the foreign guarantees submitted in the bid were issued not by real banking institutions, but by a fictional FirstRand Bank branch in Manila and ACE Investment Bank in Malaysia, and were then “validated” using forged SBI endorsement letters. A spoofed email domain mimicking SBI’s official address was reportedly created to make the documents appear genuine.
According to the chargesheet, Reliance routed ₹6.33 crore to Biswal Tradelink under fabricated transportation work orders and paid an additional ₹5.40 crore as a false “fee” to disguise the arrangement as legitimate business activity. The ED argues that Reliance Group officials knew the guarantee was fraudulent, pointing to the fact that once SECI detected anomalies and raised objections, the company attempted to remedy the situation within 24 hours by arranging a genuine IDBI Bank guarantee—but after the official deadline had already expired. Investigators say the company then made further attempts to keep its bid alive by trying to obtain a fresh SBI endorsement of the same fake foreign guarantee through a Kolkata branch using a dummy agreement and fraudulent enlistment documents.
After these efforts failed and SECI rejected the bid, Reliance NU BESS filed a complaint against Biswal Tradelink and its managing director, a move the ED characterises as an attempt to shift responsibility rather than acknowledge involvement. Reliance Power’s chief financial officer, Ashok Kumar Pal, has been arrested and remains in judicial custody. Ahead of the filing of the chargesheet, the ED attached assets worth ₹5.15 crore as proceeds of crime.
The case will now advance before a special PMLA court, which will determine the criminal and financial liability of Reliance Power, its officers, and the intermediaries linked to the alleged forged guarantee scheme.
