( Wikipedia)
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary prosecution complaint in connection with the alleged fraudulent bank guarantee submitted by M/s Reliance Power Limited to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). This bank guarantee was submitted to secure a major SECI tender. After the matter came to light, the ED conducted a detailed investigation, revealing several shocking facts.
The ED initiated the investigation based on two FIRs filed by the EOW, Delhi. The first FIR was filed based on an SECI complaint against M/s Reliance NU BESS Ltd (a 100% subsidiary of Reliance Power). The second FIR in this case was filed by Reliance NU BESS Ltd itself against M/s Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd and its MD, Partha Sarathi Biswal.
The SECI had issued a tender for a 1000 MW/2000 MWh standalone BESS project. Bidders in this tender were required to submit a bank guarantee of ₹68.2 crore. If the bank guarantee was from a foreign bank, it was required to be endorsed by the Indian branch of that bank or SBI.
The PMLA investigation revealed that Reliance Power Ltd deliberately created fake bank guarantees with the help of a shell company, M/s Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd.
These guarantees were created in the name of...
To make these fake guarantees appear genuine, spoofed email IDs in the name of SBI, fake endorsement letters, and a fake domain name—s-bi.co.in—that resembled SBI's real domain, sbi.co.in—were used.
During the investigation, the ED also discovered that Reliance Power sent ₹6.33 crore to Biswal Tradelink from another subsidiary, Rosa Power Supply Company Ltd. This money was sent in the name of "transportation services," but upon investigation, it was discovered that all the work orders and invoices were actually fake.
After obtaining the fake bank guarantee, Reliance Power also paid a hefty fee of ₹5.40 crore to the shell company to make the entire transaction appear authorized and legitimate.
However, when SECI detected irregularities in the guarantee, Reliance Group submitted a genuine bank guarantee from IDBI Bank within a day. However, SECI did not accept it because it was submitted after the due date.
To secure the tender, officials at Reliance NU BESS Ltd. attempted to obtain a new endorsement of the fake foreign bank guarantee from the Kolkata branch of SBI. To do so, they created fake agreements and obtained a "Certificate of Enlistment" from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation by providing a bogus address.
Despite this, they were unable to obtain the endorsement. Reliance subsequently filed a complaint to place the entire blame on Biswal Tradelink and its MD.
The ED says its investigation has established a complete conspiracy of malfeasance, collusion, and fraud by the Reliance Group. Reliance Power CFO Ashok Kumar Pal and several other accused have been arrested in this case. All accused are currently in judicial custody.
The ED has also attached illegal proceeds of ₹5.15 crore before filing a supplementary complaint.
1. Partha Sarathi Biswal
2. M/s Biswal Tradelink Private Limited
3. M/s Biothane Chemicals Private Limited
4. Amar Nath Dutta
5. Ravinder Pal Singh Chadha
6. M/s Reliance NU BESS Limited
7. M/s Rosa Power Supply Company Limited
8. Manoj Bhaiyasaheb Pongde
9. M/s Reliance Power Limited
10. Ashok Kumar Pal
11. Punit Narendra Garg
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