Anil Ambani’s aide in ED custody in money laundering case
Mangalore Today /ndtv
New Delhi, october 16, 2025: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Reliance Power Limited, in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged fake bank guarantee of Rs 68 crore. The arrest is in connection with a financial probe that has already rattled the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group, sending its shares tumbling across markets this week.
Pal, who was taken into custody late on Friday night after hours of interrogation, was produced before a special PMLA court in Delhi and remanded to two days’ judicial custody. The court has reserved its order on further remand till October 18.
The ED is investigating the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following an FIR filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police last November. The FIR alleged that Reliance Power’s subsidiary had submitted a forged bank guarantee to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which is a public sector enterprise, to secure a battery storage tender.
According to investigators, the guarantee -- purportedly issued by FirstRand Bank, Manila -- was fake, as the bank has no operational branch in the Philippines. The ED believes Pal played a "crucial role" in facilitating and approving the documents submitted to SECI through non-standard communication channels, including Telegram and WhatsApp, bypassing the company’s normal internal workflow systems.
Reliance Power said Pal had "demitted the office of Executive Director and CFO with immediate effect" pending investigation.
The company maintained that it was "a victim of fraud, forgery, and cheating conspiracy to cheat", insisting that the alleged fake guarantee had been arranged by a third party without its knowledge.
It cited earlier complaints lodged with the Delhi Police’s EOW in October 2024, which resulted in a criminal case filed on November 11, 2024, against Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink, the company accused of creating the forged bank documents.
"We refer to our disclosures dated November 7 and 14, 2024, whereby we informed that the company had lodged a complaint regarding a fake endorsement of bank guarantee against EMD (issued by a foreign bank) arranged by a third party," the filing said.
Reliance Power added that it and its subsidiaries had acted bona fide, and reiterated that Chairman Anil Ambani has not been on the company’s board for more than three and a half years and "is not concerned with this matter in any manner.
This arrest follows a major ED crackdown in July, when raids were conducted at 35 locations linked to Reliance Group companies, covering over 50 firms and 25 individuals. That operation, officials said, was based on information received from multiple regulators, including the National Housing Bank, SEBI, the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), and Bank of Baroda.