The Enforcement Directorate’s Kolkata Zonal Office-II has filed a supplementary chargesheet under the PMLA against Kuldeep Rai Sharma (former MP from Andaman & Nicobar, former Vice Chairman of ANSCBL) and 13 others. The Special Court at Port Blair filed the supplementary charge sheet, bringing the total number of accused to 52. KuldeepRai Sharma was the Congress MP from Andaman & Nicobar from 2019 to 2024.
The newly arraigned are JayantaBala (empanelled property valuer), J. Suresh Chandran, John Robert Babu, Anil Kumar, MohdAli, P. Abhilash, KiranLal N.H. and their companies. The case stems from an FIR registered by the Crime & Economic Offences Police Station, Andaman & Nicobar Police, against bank officials and private individuals for massive loan fraud.
According to the ED, Sharma and other bank officials created 23 shell companies and sanctioned loans in flagrant violation of bank policy, with no intention of recovery. The ED says it sanctioned Rs 301.50 crore in loans to 21 of these shell companies, of which approximately Rs 271 crore is now non-performing. The total amount of proceeds of crime identified is over Rs 500 crore.
The shell companies were invariably set up in the names of associates or dummy directors and were quickly given very large loans on incorporation, having absolutely no business at all. Cheap land was regularly used as security, and its value was inflated through collusion with bank officials and private parties. Once the money was released, it was rapidly withdrawn in cash or funnelled through several accounts of shell companies and associates, and was never used for the purported purpose. The diverted money went toward land purchases, hotels and resorts, semi-submersible tourist vessels, and repaying prior loans (again predominantly in the names of family members and associates to disguise beneficial ownership).
A significant number of the properties were acquired via powers of attorney or unregistered sale agreements to avoid creating a clear title trail. Those same properties were then re-pledged to the bank for further loans, which in turn became NPAs.
The probe also established that the fraud went beyond the shell companies. Loans were actually sanctioned to several active companies in return for commissions of around 5 per cent of the loan value, which would go to Sharma and senior bank officials. Sharma and his wife, Vinita Sharma, are alleged to have personally benefited from the fraud through loans of around Rs 81.10 crore, routed through companies linked to him and in his wife’s name.
Previously, the ED arrested Sharma (then MD), K. Murugan (now deceased), loan officer K. Kalaivanan and Sanjay Lal and filed the original prosecution complaint on 14th November 2025 against 39 persons and entities. So far, properties worth approx. Rs 326.91 cr have been attached (Rs 205.56 cr under order dated 10.02.2026 as confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority and Rs 121.35 cr under order dated 05.11.2026).
The supplementary complaint is for confiscation of these properties. The accused used the co-op bank to divert large amounts of public money, and hundreds of crores remain unaccounted for.