NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 121.35 crore, including two semi-submarine tourist vessels imported from Croatia, a hotel, land parcels and bank deposits, in a money laundering probe into an alleged Rs 500 crore fraud at a cooperative bank in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the agency said on Wednesday.
With the latest order, total attachments in the case stand at 326 crore rupees. The federal probe agency attached the assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on November 5, attaching 35 immovable and five movable properties.
It filed a fresh prosecution complaint, or chargesheet, on November 6 before a special PMLA court in Port Blair, the agency said. The case involves the Andaman and Nicobar State Co-operative Bank.
One of the main accused is Kuldeep Rai Sharma, a former member of parliament from the Congress party who served as the bank’s vice chairman. The agency has arrested and named him in the chargesheet.
The case stems from a police complaint filed by the Crime and Economic Offences Cell of the Andaman and Nicobar Police. The attached assets include the land and building of the Joye Grand Hotel and two semi-submarine vessels imported from Croatia for about Rs 2.11 crore and registered in the name of Andaman Escapades Pvt Ltd.
“However, the investigation revealed that they (semi-submarines) were actually bought for Kuldeep Rai Sharma using money from a fraudulent loan taken in the name of a shell company, Heyday Hospitality Services Pvt Ltd,” the ED alleged.
The agency said the remaining properties were acquired through powers of attorney or sale agreements in the names of borrowers, accused persons and dummy directors. The agency alleged that Sharma, bank officials and his associates got loans sanctioned through shell companies in violation of banking rules, and the money was diverted and never repaid.
It said senior bank officials, including Sharma and Managing Director K Murugan, who has since died, took bribes of about 5 percent of the loan amount. In many cases, loans were sanctioned in excess, and a share was taken in cash or through shell companies, it said. The ED filed its first chargesheet in November 2025, and the two chargesheets together name 52 accused.
