The Delhi High Court on Wednesday denied bail to Ashok Kumar Pal, former Chief Financial Officer of Reliance Power Ltd, in a money laundering case linked to an alleged fake bank guarantee worth more than Rs 68 crore submitted for participation in a Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) tender.
A vacation bench of Justice Madhu Jain held that while the evidence collected by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) would be scrutinised during the trial, it could not be completely disregarded at the stage of deciding a bail application.
The case stems from a June 2024 tender floated by SECI for the development of a 1,000 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project. To participate in the bidding process, Reliance Power had entered into an arrangement with Biswal Tradelink for the procurement of a bank guarantee.
In September 2024, SECI issued a show-cause notice to Reliance Power, stating that the bank guarantee submitted for the tender was found to be false. Following its findings, SECI barred Reliance Power and its subsidiary, Reliance NU BESS Ltd, from participating in its tenders for a period of three years.
The debarment order, however, was stayed by the Delhi High Court on November 26, 2024.
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Subsequently, Pal lodged a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Biswal Tradelink, based on which a First Information Report (FIR) was registered in Delhi.
The ED later initiated an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, into the alleged fake bank guarantee transaction. During the course of the probe, the agency named Pal as an accused in its supplementary prosecution complaint and arrested him in October 2025.
Seeking bail, Senior Advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Pal, argued that the trial had not yet commenced and was unlikely to conclude in the near future. He submitted that the prosecution intends to examine 72 witnesses and rely on voluminous documentary evidence, making the proceedings likely to be prolonged.
The ED opposed the plea through Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, who argued against granting bail in the matter.
Advocates Varun Chandiok, Alok Kumar, Sidharth Yadav and Arpit Mahendru also appeared on behalf of Pal. The ED was represented by Panel Counsel Vivek Gurnani along with Advocates Pranjal Tripathi, Kanishk Maurya and Tanvi Jain.
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