Reliance Power Ex-CFO’s ED custody extended


He is the first senior executive of the Reliance ADA Group to be arrested in the bank guarantee case. Anil Ambani, certain current and past senior executives of his group companies and several bank officials are under investigation by the ED for their alleged involvement in a ₹17,000 crore loan fraud case.
Appearing on behalf of Pal, advocate Vijay Aggarwal moved an application seeking directions from the court to declare his arrest illegal. He contended that the ED arrested Pal without seeking prior court permission even after filing a complaint before it. To buttress his claim, he cited an earlier judgement. ED’s counsel opposed the argument. The court kept Pal’s application for resumed hearing on October 16.Reliance Power on Saturday evening issued a statement saying that Pal demitted the office of executive director and CFO with immediate effect. A “third party” had arranged the bank guarantee from a foreign bank and Reliance Power and its subsidiaries acted in a bona fide manner, it said, claiming that it is “a victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy”.The company on Saturday named chief executive Neeraj Parakh to the additional position of interim CFO.The federal agency had on August 1 arrested Partha Sarathi Biswal, MD of Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink, for allegedly arranging the fake bank guarantee that a Reliance Power subsidiary had sought for participating in a Solar Energy Corporation of India tender.energy.economictimes.indiatimes