Overview

• A Delhi special court granted the Enforcement Directorate two days of custodial interrogation of Ashok Kumar Pal under the PMLA.
• The guarantee for a SECI battery storage tender on behalf of Reliance NU BESS/Maharashtra Energy Generation was found to be fake, citing a non-existent FirstRand Bank branch in Manila.
• Investigators point to spoofed domains such as s-bi.co.in used to impersonate SBI in emails to SECI, along with the use of disappearing-message platforms to mask communications.
• The ED ties the instrument to Odisha-based Biswal Tradelink, described as a paper entity issuing fake guarantees for commission; its managing director Partha Sarathi Biswal was earlier arrested.
• Pal’s arrest aligns with broader ED and CBI probes into alleged fund diversion and circular lending involving ADA group companies and Yes Bank, following recent searches and summons.