ED arrests Amar Nath Dutta in bogus bank guarantee case linked to Reliance NU BESS Ltd

New Delhi [India], November 7 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Amar Nath Dutta in connection with the bogus bank guarantee case involving Reliance NU BESS Ltd, which allegedly caused a loss of over Rs 100 crore to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
According to officials, this is the third arrest in the case, following the earlier arrests of Ashok Pal and Partha Sarathi Biswal.
Dutta was produced before a special court, which granted the ED's four days of custodial remand for further interrogation.
The case pertains to the submission of forged bank guarantees to SECI, leading to significant financial losses.
The ED is probing the money trail and the role of various individuals and entities involved in the alleged fraud.
The SECI found that a bank guarantee submitted by Reliance NU BESS Ltd in connection with a tender (for a 1,000 MW/2,000 MWh standalone Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project) was fraudulent.
According to SECI's show-cause notice, the guarantee was purportedly issued by a foreign bank (FirstRand Bank, via a branch in Manila, Philippines), but in fact, no such branch existed.
SECI concluded that the submission of the fake Bank Guarantee and its forged endorsements was a "deliberate act ... intended to vitiate the tendering process and to secure the project capacity through fraudulent means."
In November 2024, SECI issued a debarment notice barring Reliance Power and its subsidiary Reliance NU BESS from participating in its tenders for three years for submitting fake documents.
The matter was further investigated by the ED, which registered a money-laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following an FIR filed by the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing. The ED identified a "racket" in which fake bank guarantees were arranged via a shell entity and undue commissions were paid.
The alleged value of the bogus bank guarantee is around Rs 68.2 crore.
The ED's investigation also claims that for arranging the fake bank guarantee, the intermediary firm received a commission on the order of the amount.
Last month, ED had arrested Ashok Kumar Pal, who was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Reliance Power Ltd, under the PMLA in connection with the fake bank guarantee case. ED has described him as one of the "principal architects" of the money-laundering scheme involving forged bank guarantees. Pal was taken into custody on October 11 after several hours of questioning at the agency's Delhi office.
Pal, as the CFO of Reliance Power--a publicly listed company in which more than 75 per cent shares are held by the public--played a "crucial role" in the diversion of company funds and submission of forged financial documents.
The investigation pertains to a fraudulent bank guarantee of over Rs 68 crore submitted to the SECI for a BESS tender.
Officials said Pal was empowered by a board resolution to finalise, approve, and execute documents on behalf of RPL for the SECI bid. In this capacity, he allegedly conspired to submit a fake bank guarantee with the intention of cheating the PSU.
The ED's probe revealed that the bogus guarantee was issued in the name of "FirstRand Bank, Manila, Philippines, a location where the bank has no operational branch."
The guarantee was arranged through Biswal Tradelink Pvt. Ltd (BTPL), a small entity operating from a residential address with no credible record in providing such guarantees, the agency has said.
The financial probe agency has also arrested BTPL director Partha Sarathi Biswal, who is already in judicial custody, and is alleged to have assisted in executing the forged document.
ED has said that its investigators further alleged that Pal approved fake transport invoices worth several crores to facilitate fund diversion. He reportedly cleared payments and managed paperwork through Telegram and WhatsApp, bypassing Reliance Power's official SAP and vendor master systems.
The ED also found that Pal used the services of a fake bank guarantee racket operating through spoofed email domains resembling those of major Indian banks, such as "s-bi.co.in" instead of the genuine "sbi.co.in". Similar lookalike domains were used to impersonate other banks, including Indian Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Punjab National Bank. (ANI)