ED conducts its first ever search in Andaman and Nicobar islands
Search in connection to fraud bank loan case
Bank's vice chairman Kuldeep Sharma former congress MP of the UT is under search connection in the fraud
ED Conducts First Ever Search In Andaman And Nicobar Islands
The search is a part of an ongoing money laundering case linked to an alleged cooperative bank loan “fraud”.
Summary
This is the first time that the agency has undertaken searches in the Union Territory located in the Bay of Bengal, they said.
Sources said the agency has recovered some documents pointing towards "large-scale" irregularities in the grant of loans and overdraft facilities by Andaman Nicobar State Cooperative Bank (ANSCB).
The case pertains to the ANSCB and its vice chairman, Kuldeep Rai Sharma. Sharma, a 57-year-old Congress leader, is a former MP of the UT (2019-24).
Nine places in and around Sri Vijay Puram (formerly known as Port Blair) and two in Kolkata were raided by the officials of the central probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
The role of former Congress MP Sharma is also under the scanner of the ED, according to the sources.
They alleged that a group of about 15 entities/companies were created by suspects for the benefit of Sharma, and loan facilities of more than Rs 200 crore were fraudulently taken by these entities from the ANSCB.
The sources said documents collected indicate that loan facilities were extended to various shell companies/ firms by ignoring the laid down procedures and guidelines of the bank. The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Crime and Economic Offences Wing of the Andaman Nicobar Police.
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