Anil Ambani Aide and Reliance Power CFO Arrested by ED in Money Laundering Probe

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and an Executive Director of Reliance Power Ltd., and a known close aide of industrialist Anil Ambani, in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation. The arrest was made late Friday night under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Mr. Pal was taken into custody from the ED’s Delhi office following an extended session of questioning. He is scheduled to be produced before a special court judge on Saturday, where the central probe agency is expected to seek his custodial remand for further interrogation.

Core of the Allegations: Fake Bank Guarantees and Diversion of Funds

The arrest of the senior executive is a significant development in a broader investigation into alleged financial misconduct tied to the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) Group. The ED’s primary allegation against Mr. Pal revolves around his purported “central role” in orchestrating a fraudulent bank guarantee worth over Rs. 68 crore (Rs. 68.2 crore) which was submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a public sector undertaking.

Investigators claim the fraudulent guarantee was part of a sophisticated racket involving:

• Bogus Financial Instruments: Allegedly submitting a fake bank guarantee to SECI on behalf of Reliance Power group entities.
• Spoofed Communications: The agency has detailed that to pass off the forged bank guarantee as genuine, a spoofed email domain was used to impersonate a major commercial bank, inserting a hyphen into the bank’s official domain name to create a look-alike.
• Facilitating Bogus Companies: Mr. Pal is accused of facilitating the selection of a company, Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd (BTPL)—described by the ED as a paper entity with no credible track record—to issue the fake guarantee. The director of BTPL is already in judicial custody.
• Diversion of Public Funds: The ED alleges that the scheme was intended to divert funds through bogus invoices and fraudulent instruments from a publicly listed entity, Reliance Power, where the public holds a significant majority of shares.

Part of a Larger ADA Group Investigation

The current action is linked to the wider probe concerning the financial irregularities within the ADA Group. The Enforcement Directorate is investigating the group in connection with multi-crore bank fraud cases, including allegations related to loan frauds involving Yes Bank. The probe suggests that large loans were channeled from Yes Bank into financially stressed ADA Group companies during the tenure of the bank’s former CEO, Rana Kapoor. The ED’s scrutiny follows raids conducted at multiple locations across Mumbai earlier this year, covering several companies and individuals linked to the group.

The arrest of a top financial executive is seen as a crucial escalation in the probe, indicating the ED’s focus on the individuals allegedly responsible for executing the financial schemes under investigation. Reliance Power has yet to issue an official statement on the arrest. Sources