Webdesk: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested the first individual in the 3,000-crore loan fraud case involving companies of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.
A case was then registered against Partha Sarathi Biswal, the Managing Director of Biswal Tradelink Pvt Ltd. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, on Friday by the ED.
The officials allege that Biswal provided fraudulent bank guarantees of Rs 68.2 crore to Solar Energy Corporation of India.
These were said to have been offered on behalf of Reliance Power. Which is one of the companies in the Anil Ambani group.
The ED is looking into this misuse of such a huge sum of money. In this case, there is a suspicion of forged papers and unlawful loan usage.
Further arrest and action might be witnessed later in the survey.
Officials said that the company led by Biswal provided counterfeit bank guarantees of Rs 68.2 crore to the Solar Energy Corporation of India. This was supposedly done on behalf of Reliance Power.
According to a case registered earlier by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police, fake emails and forged certifications of Biswal Tradelink, established in 2019. And its directors had aided in backing up the promises, which had been conducted using fake documentation.
According to investigators, the mails were sent through a spoof domain name, ‘s-bi.co.in’. Which was created to resemble the actual domain of the State Bank of India (SBI), which is sbi.co.in.
The ED also found out that Biswal Tradelink obtained 5.4 crores of Reliance Power by fraud (as a way of guaranteeing the perjured guarantees).
There were also suspicions raised by the fact that the company was operating at least seven secret bank accounts through which it was transferring money.
Police officers note that even more people are likely to be arrested and taken to court as the investigation progresses in terms of unveiling more information about the scam.
According to sources, Biswal Tradelink had not gone through the necessary procedures which were required legally, and had not maintained any proper records.
This is because the company had fake or so-called dummy directors who were signing other key documents. Which was another red flag to the operations of the company.
Partha Sarathi Biswal was arrested and appeared before a special court after being brought before the special court.
The court granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) a 3-day custody of him till Wednesday. So that it could question him further.
The arrest was made just one day after Anil Ambani was issued a lookout notice by authorities in regard to the same bank fraud case.
The ED is already probing the alleged misappropriation of close to Rs 3,000 crore in loans given by Yes Bank to merchant companies of the Reliance Group between 2017 and 2019.
Officials of the YES Bank might have been paid off shortly before the side of loans to their favour,. Which gives an indication that there could have been a give-and-take or quid pro quo between the top officials of the bank and YES Bank, investigators say.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) began raids on over 50 companies linked to the case on July 24, and these searches continued for at least three days.
The raids were carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In response to media reports about the raids, Reliance Power issued a statement to the stock exchanges.
It said the reports seem to be related to old allegations involving Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), which date back more than 10 years.
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