In Rs 3,000-Crore Anil Ambani Loan Fraud Case, Probe Agency Makes 1st Arrest

Making its first arrest in connection with the Rs 3,000-crore loan fraud case against companies of Anil Ambani's Reliance Group, the Enforcement Directorate has taken the managing director of a company into custody for submitting fake guarantees worth Rs 68.2 crore, sources said on Saturday. These guarantees, they said, were arranged on behalf of Reliance Power.

Partha Sarathi Biswal, managing director of Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd, was arrested on Friday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police had filed a first information report (FIR) that Biswal Tradelink - which was founded in 2019 - and its directors submitted fake bank guarantees worth Rs 68.2 crore to the Solar Energy Corporation of India. Sources said investigations revealed that these guarantees were backed by forgeries and fabricated email confirmations - using a spoofed domain, 's-bi.co.in', which is very close to the domain of the SBI (sbi.co.in)

The ED found that Biswal Tradelink had fraudulently received Rs 5.4 crore from Reliance Power for arranging the fake guarantees and had been operating at least seven undisclosed bank accounts. 

The company, the sources said, did not maintain the mandatory records and used dummy directors to sign off on documents. 

Mr Biswal was produced before a special court, which granted ED his custody till Wednesday.

The news of the arrest comes a day after a lookout circular was issued against Anil Ambani in connection with the bank fraud case. 

The ED has been investigating the alleged diversion of around Rs 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 started raids at over 50 firms connected to the case on July 24 and continued them for at least three days. The raids were conducted under PMLA.

In a communication to stock exchanges on the raids, Reliance Power had said, "The media reports appear to pertain to allegations concerning transactions of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) which are over 10 years old."