ED raids Odisha firm against 'fake' bank-guarantee racket

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday (August 1), conducted raids against a company in Odisha for allegedly operating a “fake” bank-guarantee issue racket for business groups. It includes offering an alleged assurance worth Rs 68 crore for a Reliance Group firm, official sources revealed.

The case is against the Bhubaneswar-based Biswal Tradelink and its directors.

Filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED case stems from an FIR of the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) filed in November last year.

Searches at 3 Odisha premises

According to sources, the ED carried out the searches at three premises of the company on Friday in Bhubaneswar and one “associate” entity in Kolkata in West Bengal.

Also read: Loan fraud case: ED summons Anil Ambani for questioning on Aug 5

According to agency sources, the company was engaged in the activity of issuing “fake” bank guarantees against a commission of eight per cent.

They said a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore given to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited was found to be “fake”. Reliance NU BESS Limited is a subsidiary of Reliance Power.

The company was earlier called Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited.

The ED seized some documents related to the transaction during the last week searches against the Reliance Group companies led by Anil Ambani in Mumbai, they said.

Also read: Bhupesh Baghel: ED action against son to mask Adani illegal tree-felling case

'Reliance power a victim of fraud'

A Reliance Group spokesperson said Reliance Power has been a “victim of fraud, forgery and cheating conspiracy" in this case. It was also said that it made due disclosures in this context to the stock exchanges on November 7 last year.

The spokesperson said a criminal complaint was lodged by them against the third party (accused company) with the Delhi Police EOW in October 2024 and the “due process” of law will follow.

The sources added that similar suspicious financial transactions with multiple companies have been traced and this was being probed.

Also read: Rahul defends Vadra after ED chargesheet: 'Hounded by this govt for 10 years'

It was learnt that the Odisha-based company was using an email domain--s-bi.co.in-- instead of the original sbi.co.in to create an impression that the communication is being sent by the State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank.

The fake domain was used to send "forged" communication to SECI, impersonating the SBI, the sources said.

ED approaches NIXI for details

The ED has requested the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) for domain-registration details of the fake domain.

The agency’s preliminary investigation, said the sources, has indicated that the company in Odisha has also facilitated “fake” bills for commission and uses several “undisclosed” bank accounts.

Also read: Karnataka: Former MP DK Suresh appears before ED

Dubious transactions worth crores have been done through these bank accounts, they added.

Accused firm 'mere paper entity'

The accused company is a “mere paper entity” as its registered office is a residential property and no company records were found at the address during the searches, the sources said.

They also claimed that the firm’s key individuals were using the Telegram app in a ‘disappearing messages’ enabled mode to “conceal” their communications.

(With inputs from agencies)