ED makes 1st arrest in Rs 3,000-crore loan fraud involving Anil Ambani

Making its first arrest in connection with the Rs 3,000-crore loan fraud case that involves Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested the managing director of an Odisha-based company that allegedly ran a “fake” bank guarantee issuance racket for business groups, and allegedly provided Rs 68 crore assurance for a Reliance Group company, official sources on Saturday said.

The federal probe agency had launched searches in the money laundering case against a company named Biswal Tradelink, located in Bhubaneswar, on Friday.

Biswal Tradelink Managing Director Partha Sarathi Biswal was taken into custody from Bhubaneswar on Friday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the sources said.

The case filed by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act stems from a November, 2024 FIR of the Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

The ED had on Friday launched searches at the company’s three premises in Bhubaneswar and one “associate” entity in Kolkata.

Agency sources said the company was engaged in the activity of issuance of “fake” bank guarantees against a commission of eight per cent.

They said a bank guarantee of Rs 68.2 crore submitted to the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited, on behalf of Reliance NU BESS Limited, a subsidiary of Reliance Power, was found to be “fake”. The company was formerly known as Maharashtra Energy Generation Ltd. The ED seized some documents related to this transaction during the recent searches against the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group companies in Mumbai, the sources said.