Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power in trouble as renewable energy agency initiates criminal action over fake bid

Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI), India's top renewable energy agency, has sent a notice to Reliance Power asking why it should not initiate criminal proceedings after a subsidiary of the Anil Ambani-led power producer submitted fake documents for a bid, reported the news agency Reuters citing a notice issued on Wednesday, November 13. 

Last week, the SECI banned Reliance Power from participating in its clean energy project tenders for three years after the agency found that a unit of the company submitted a fake endorsement of a foreign bank guarantee.

The SECI is owned and controlled by the government of India under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The agency also said on Wednesday that the bank guarantee submitted by the unit, Reliance NU BESS, was also fake, as per the report.

“The repeated submission of a fake bank guarantee along with its counterfeit endorsement has been deemed a deliberate act by the bidder, intended to vitiate the tendering process and to secure the project capacity through fraudulent means,” said SECI, reported the agency. 

Reliance Power did not immediately respond to the agency's queries on the development.

Last week, The Anil-Ambani-led power generation company said it would legally challenge SECI's ban and lodged a police complaint against the third party that arranged the bank guarantee.

The notice from the government-owned agency comes at a time when the company is eyeing an expansion into the domestic and overseas renewable energy sector. 

Reliance Power Ltd's shares closed 1.53 per cent lower at ₹36 after Thursday's market session, compared to ₹36.56 at the previous market close. 

Renewable Energy in India

Companies in India are looking more into setting up clean energy projects as the country targets 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030, part of its 2070 net-zero goals. This figure is up from the current installed capacity of nearly 154 gigawatts. 

In August, Anil Ambani was banned from the securities market for five years and fined nearly $3 million by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) over charges of fund diversion, as per the report.