Court rejects bail plea of ex-Congress MP in Andaman co-op bank fraud case

A special court in Port Blair rejected the bail plea of four people, one of them former Andaman and Nicobar Islands MP and Congress leader Kuldeep Rai Sharma, arrested by the ED in a Rs 500 crore cooperative bank "fraud" linked money laundering case, the agency said on Monday.

On December 12, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court dismissed the plea of Sharma, an ex-Chairman of the Andaman and Nicobar State Cooperative Bank (ANSCBL), the bank's managing director, K Murugan, loan officer K Kalaivanan, and Sanjay Lal, an alleged associate of Sharma, it said in a statement.

Sharma represented the Union Territory in the Lok Sabha between 2019 and 2024.

"The court held that there are prima facie materials showing active involvement of all four accused persons in the money laundering activities arising from the A&N State Cooperative Bank fraud and related shell companies," the Enforcement Directorate said.

The court, it said, "relied upon" various statements recorded by the agency and observed that the shell (dummy) companies were created in "connivance" of the accused and that bank funds were "fraudulently" disbursed, routed and paid as a "bribe" to Sharma, following which immovable properties were acquired.

It said the court also observed that Sharma and Lal "destroyed" evidence, adding that the arrest of all four was justified.

The ED had chargesheeted a total of 39 people and entities, including these four, as part of this investigation in November.

The money laundering case stems from a Crime and Economic Offences Cell of the Andaman and Nicobar Police.

Loans were sanctioned through more than 100 loan accounts in the names of various firms and shell (dummy) companies, in "complete disregard" of the laid-down procedures and guidelines of the bank, the central probe agency said.

The amount involved in the fraud exceeds Rs 500 crore, it had earlier said.