The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power, in connection with a money laundering case involving forged bank guarantees worth ₹68.20 crore. Pal was arrested on Friday night after being questioned at the ED's Delhi headquarters and was produced before a Delhi court on Saturday. The court has granted the ED two days of custody, and he will be produced before a special PMLA court on October 13. Following his arrest, Reliance Power informed the stock exchange that Pal has "demitted the office of Executive Director and CFO with immediate effect".

The ED has labeled Pal a "principal architect" of the money laundering scheme. He is accused of orchestrating sham transactions and integrating forged documents into a tender process for Reliance NU BESS, a subsidiary of Reliance Power. The case involves a fraudulent bank guarantee submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) tender.

According to officials, a board resolution had empowered Pal and others to finalize, approve, sign, and execute all documents related to SECI's BESS tender and to use Reliance Power's financial capability for the bid. Pal allegedly oversaw the planning, supervision, funding, and concealment of the forged bank guarantee scheme used in the SECI tender.

The probe revealed that Reliance Power submitted a bank guarantee purportedly issued by FirstRand Bank, Manila, Philippines. However, authorities confirmed that FirstRand Bank has no branch in the Philippines. The ED alleges that Pal used the services of a fake bank guarantee racket that employed spoofed and look-alike domains of commercial banks to pass off forged documents as genuine.

The ED investigation also revealed that funds were diverted through fake transport invoices amounting to several crores. Pal is accused of approving these releases and facilitating paperwork outside the company's standard workflow. The agency suspects the illegal diversion of around ₹3,000 crore in loans disbursed by Yes Bank between 2017 and 2019.

The ED's money laundering case stems from a November 2024 FIR filed by the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The FIR was based on a complaint from Reliance NUBESS Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, against Biswal Tradelink Private Limited (BTPL) and its director, Partha Sarathi Biswal. Biswal was arrested in August and is currently in judicial custody.

Reliance Power has stated that the company and its subsidiaries acted in good faith and are victims of fraud, forgery, and a cheating conspiracy. The company claims it lodged a criminal complaint with the Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police in October 2024 regarding the alleged fake endorsement of a bank guarantee. Reliance Power also clarified that Anil Ambani has not been on the Board of Reliance Power for more than 3.5 years and is not concerned with this matter.