New Delhi (December 6, UNI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday filed a supplementary chargesheet in a case involving alleged fake bank guarantees submitted by Reliance Power Limited to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to secure a tender.
The ED initiated its investigation based on FIRs registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi. One FIR was against Reliance NU BESS Limited (a 100% subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited) following a complaint by SECI, and another was filed by Reliance NU BESS Limited against Biswal Tradelink Private Limited and its Managing Director, Partha Sarathi Biswal.
An ED official said, “Reliance Power Limited (through its subsidiary Reliance NU BESS Limited) submitted a bid for an SECI tender to set up 1000 MW / 2000 MWh standalone Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects under tariff-based competitive bidding. The bidder was required to submit a bank guarantee of Rs. 68.2 crore. As per the tender conditions, if the bank guarantee is issued by a foreign bank, it requires endorsement from an Indian branch of that bank or from the State Bank of India (SBI).”
The ED stated that its investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) revealed that Reliance Power Limited, with mala fide intent, hired the services of a shell entity, Biswal Tradelink Private Limited, to arrange a fake bank guarantee. This guarantee was purportedly from a non-existent branch of FirstRand Bank in Manila, Philippines, and from ACE Investment Bank Limited, Malaysia. Furthermore, endorsements of the fake guarantees were created using a spoofed SBI email ID and forged endorsement letters.
“A fraudulent domain, s-bi.co.in (a look-alike of sbi.co.in), was used for this purpose. Additionally, Reliance Power Limited routed 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 to fund the arrangement of the fake bank guarantee,” the ED said.
The investigation further revealed that a fake work order and fake invoices were executed by Reliance Group officials in collusion with Partha Sarathi Biswal. After the fraudulent bank guarantee was arranged, Reliance Power Limited also paid a hefty fee of Rs. 5.40 crore to the shell entity to portray the arrangement as a genuine commercial transaction.
The ED alleged that Reliance Group officials were fully aware that a fake bank guarantee with fraudulent endorsements was being submitted to SECI from a spoofed SBI email ID. When SECI detected the fraud, the Reliance Group arranged a genuine bank guarantee from IDBI Bank within a day of being notified. However, SECI refused to accept the new guarantee as it was submitted after the due date.
Since Reliance NU BESS Limited had emerged as the L-2 (second lowest) bidder, its officials, in an attempt to save the tender, tried to arrange a fresh endorsement for the fake foreign bank guarantee from an SBI branch in Kolkata. During this process, they signed a dummy agreement and obtained a “Certificate of Enlistment” from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation by submitting bogus address documents. When they failed again to get the endorsement, they filed a complaint against Biswal Tradelink Private Limited and its MD to shift the blame onto the intermediary, the ED claimed.
The PMLA investigation has established the connivance and mala fide intentions of the Reliance Group in attempting to secure the SECI tender by submitting fake bank guarantees and forged SBI endorsements. During the investigation, the CFO of Reliance Power Limited, Ashok Kumar Pal, and other facilitators were arrested and are currently in judicial custody.
Ahead of filing the chargesheet, the ED also attached proceeds of crime worth Rs. 5.15 crore in the case.
ED files supplementary chargesheet against Reliance Power over SECI tender fraud
