ED files chargesheet against Reliance Power, subsidiaries in ‘bogus’ bank guarantee case

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Saturday (December 6, 2025) filed a supplementary prosecution complaint in the case of alleged fake bank guarantees submitted by Anil Ambani’s group company Reliance Power Limited to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for the purpose of securing a tender issued by SECI.

Among those named are Biswal Tradelink Private Limited managing director (MD) Partha Sarathi Biswal, Biothane Chemicals’ Amar Nath Dutta, Reliance NU BESS’ Ravinder Pal Singh Chadha, Rosa Power Supply Company’s Manoj Bhaiyasaheb Pongde, then Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power Limited Ashok Kumar Pal, and Punit Narendra Garg, said agency officials.

The money laundering case stems from a November 2024 FIR of Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW). In this case, the agency initiated an investigation against Reliance NU BESS Limited (a 100% subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited) based on a complaint filed by SECI, and another FIR filed by Reliance NU BESS Limited against Biswal Tradelink Private Limited and its managing director, Partha Sarathi Biswal, said an official.

Reliance Power Limited (through its subsidiary Reliance NU BESS Limited) submitted a bid for a tender issued by SECI for setting up 1000 MW / 2000 MWh standalone BESS projects under tariff-based competitive bidding.

“The bidder was required to submit a Bank Guarantee of Rs.68.2 crore along with the bid documents. As per the tender conditions, if the Bank Guarantee is issued by a foreign bank, then it requires endorsement of the same from an Indian branch of that foreign bank or from the State Bank of India (SBI),” the agency said.

According to the agency, Reliance Power Limited, with a “mala fide intent”, hired the services of a shell entity, Biswal Tradelink, to arrange a fake Bank Guarantee from FirstRand Bank, Manila, Philippines, which is a non-existent branch, and from ACE Investment Bank Limited, Malaysia.

“Further, endorsements of the fake Bank Guarantees were done by using a spoofed email ID of SBI and forged endorsement letters purportedly issued by SBI. A fraudulent domain, s-bi.co.in (a look-alike of sbi.co.in), was used for the said purpose….Reliance Power Limited routed funds of Rs.6.33 crore from its other subsidiary, Rosa Power Supply Company Limited, to the shell entity Biswal Tradelink Private Limited under the guise of bogus transportation services, in order to meet the required funding for arranging the fake Bank Guarantee,” as alleged.

A fake work order and fake invoices were allegedly executed “in collusion with the accomplice” Partha Sarathi Biswal. After the arrangement of the fraudulent Bank Guarantee Rs. 5.40 crore was paid to the shell entity to “depict the entire arrangement as a genuine commercial transaction”.

The agency has also alleged that the Group officials were well aware that a fake Bank Guarantee and its “fraudulent” endorsements were being submitted to SECI from a spoofed email ID of SBI and, when SECI detected the “fraud”, the Group arranged a genuine Bank Guarantee from IDBI Bank within a day of intimation of the fraud by SECI.

However, SECI refused to accept the fresh Bank Guarantee. “Since Reliance NU BESS Limited had emerged as the L-2 bidder, in order to save the tender, Reliance Group officials even tried to arrange a fresh endorsement of the fake foreign Bank Guarantee from an SBI branch in Kolkata,” it has alleged.