The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Ashok Pal, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power, on October 10, 2025, in connection with an ongoing investigation into alleged financial irregularities. The arrest follows questioning at the agency’s Delhi office regarding a case involving an alleged fake bank guarantee totaling ₹68 crore.
According to ED sources, Mr. Pal is accused of playing a crucial role in the diversion of funds from a publicly listed company and the submission of a “bogus” bank guarantee (BG) to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) with the intent to cheat. The agency alleges his involvement in the planning, supervision, funding, and concealment of the forged BG scheme.
The investigation indicates that the alleged non-genuine BG was submitted without proper vendor diligence. Furthermore, the submitted BG, purportedly from FirstRand Bank, Manila, Philippines, is alleged to be fraudulent, as ED sources claim no such branch of FirstRand Bank exists in the Philippines. Partha Sarathi Biswal, a director of BTPL, is reportedly already in judicial custody in connection with this case, having allegedly utilized a fake bank guarantee racket that employed spoofed domains to impersonate legitimate banks and present forged instruments as genuine.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/business/ed-arrests-executive-of-anil-ambanis-reliance-group-in-fake-bank-guarantee-linked-pmla-case/article70150945.ece