Enforcement Directorate investigators probing the alleged ₹500-crore Andaman & Nicobar State Cooperative Bank (ANSCB) scam have frozen 130 bank accounts holding a total of ₹2,62,73,756.26, according to the ED chargesheet reviewed by The Wave Andaman. The attachments, issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), mark one of the most sweeping financial actions yet in a case that has already resulted in multiple arrests of political figures, bank officials and businessmen.
But the ED chargesheet also highlights a striking irony: while the alleged fraud is estimated at close to ₹500 crore, the money actually found in the accounts frozen so far is barely 0.5 per cent of the suspected diversion. The document notes that this steep mismatch points to extensive layering and dissipation of ANSCB funds over several years, leaving behind only residual balances by the time investigators moved in.
According to the chargesheet reviewed by The Wave Andaman, the highest single attachment is an HDFC Bank account belonging to Hotel Palm Shore, which held ₹17,14,234.56. This is followed by the freeze of ₹26,19,976 in a Canara Bank account held by Sanjay Lal, a central figure in both the ED prosecution complaint and the CID investigation. Multiple accounts linked to the Lal family, Sanjay, Sanjeev, Vijeta, Shyam and Sanjeet, appear across the freeze list, with the ED stating that diverted ANSCB funds were allegedly channelled through personal and business accounts controlled by the family.
Corporate entities also make up a significant portion of the freeze orders. The Sakthi Group, comprising Sakthi Shipping Logistics, Sakthi Infrastructures, Sakthi & Co and Sakthi Holidays Inn, has several accounts attached, including four with identical balances of ₹1,21,885, a pattern the ED describes as indicative of structured layering.
The chargesheet further shows high-value attachments in the hospitality sector. VDR Resotels Pvt. Ltd. has two major accounts frozen, one with ₹13.38 lakh and another with ₹8.18 lakh, placing it among the corporate entities with the largest aggregated freezes.
The ED submission also identifies individuals such as Sudha Murugan, whose accounts include attachments of ₹16.52 lakh, ₹13.49 lakh and several more between ₹5 lakh and ₹7 lakh. Former MP Kuldeep Rai Sharma appears across multiple entries, with freezes reported from his SBI, Axis Bank and UCO Bank accounts, including one with ₹1,15,528.15.
In addition to bank deposits, equity holdings worth ₹1,85,667.15 in the names of Sanjay Lal and Sanjeev Lal have been frozen, while a Toyota Hyryder SUV registered to S. Suraj was seized on allegations that it was purchased using proceeds of crime. These details, recorded in the chargesheet, bring the total value of frozen assets, including securities and balances in bank accounts, to ₹2,74,59,423.40.
The ED chargesheet reviewed by The Wave Andaman outlines how ANSCB funds were allegedly siphoned through fictitious loan accounts, shell entities and manipulated banking processes. The agency states that the fraud was not a single event but a sustained, organised scheme involving collusion between insiders and external operators who routed funds into logistics, hospitality, real estate and other businesses.
Despite the breadth of the attachments, the ED acknowledges in its filing that the sums recovered so far represent only a fraction of the suspected proceeds of crime. Forensic audits of property transactions, benami holdings and secondary fund movements are still underway, and investigators expect additional attachments in the coming phases of the probe.
The ANSCB case, one of the largest financial investigations ever undertaken in the Islands, continues to widen in scope, reshaping the region’s political and business landscape as authorities work to trace a money trail that remains far larger than the amounts frozen to date.
