In its first arrest in relation to the ₹3,000-crore loan scam case against Anil Ambani's Reliance Group companies, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested the managing director of a company for tendering bogus guarantees of ₹68.2 crore, sources said on Saturday. These guarantees, they added, were arranged on behalf of Reliance Power.
Partha Sarathi Biswal, who is the director of Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd, was arrested on Friday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing had registered a first information report (FIR) which stated that Biswal Tradelink, established in 2019, and its directors provided Solar Energy Corporation of India with false bank guarantees amounting to ₹68.2 crore. Investigations revealed that these guarantees were supported by forgeries and forged email confirmations— by a spoofed domain, 's-bi.co.in', which is virtually identical to the domain of the SBI (sbi.co.in).
The ED also discovered that Biswal Tradelink had committed fraud of ₹5.4 crore by accepting it from Reliance Power in exchange for the forged guarantees and had conducted at least seven secret bank accounts.
The firm, according to the sources, never kept the required records and relied on dummy directors to authenticate documents. Biswal was presented before a special court, which remanded ED his custody until Wednesday. The arrest follows a day after lookout circular was issued against Anil Ambani in relation to the bank fraud case.
Also read: ED summons Anil Ambani in alleged loan fraud case
The ED has been investigating the alleged diversion of around ₹3,000 crore in loans given to Reliance Group companies by YES Bank between 2017 and 2019. The agency had found that the promoters of the bank had also received payments just before the loans were sanctioned, indicating a quid pro quo arrangement.
The agency had begun raids at more than 50 companies linked to the case on July 24 and continued them for at least three days. The raids were carried out under PMLA.
In a mail to stock exchanges regarding the raids, Reliance Power had stated, "The media reports seem to relate to allegations relating to transactions of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) which are more than 10 years old."
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