Sri Vijaya Puram, July 2 — In a significant leadership change at the Andaman and Nicobar State Cooperative Bank (ANSCB), former Member of Parliament Kuldeep Rai Sharma has resigned as Chairman of the Board. The move comes at a time when the bank is under intense scrutiny for its alleged role in a multi-crore loan scam, currently being probed by law enforcement agencies.
Sources directly aware of the development told The Wave Andaman that Sharma stepped down during a board meeting held on June 30, citing health concerns and personal commitments. Although he has relinquished the chairmanship, he will continue to serve as a board member.
The bank’s board has since elected retired bureaucrat P.G. Paul as the new Chairman and appointed noted social worker and political activist Nand Kishore Singh as Vice Chairman. The appointments come amid efforts to stabilize the bank’s governance structure during a deepening institutional crisis.
A Politically Sensitive Exit
Sharma, a senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from 2019 to 2024, has been named in the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, which formally triggered the ongoing criminal probe. His long-standing association with ANSCB and the fact that he continued to occupy the top post during the period in which many of the questionable loans were sanctioned has made his exit particularly notable.The FIR names several individuals in connection with large-scale financial irregularities, fraudulent loans, inflated property valuations, and shell companies used to siphon off funds. Estimates by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Andaman and Nicobar Police place the fraud at over ₹300 crore, making it one of the largest banking scams in the history of the Union Territory.
Arrests and Expanding Probe
The case, being handled by the CID, has so far led to the arrest of five senior bank officials. Among them are the bank’s Managing Director K. Murugan, Loan Sanction Manager Kalivaran, senior official Ajay Minj, and two others who were directly involved in the approval and disbursal of fraudulent loans.
In addition to these arrests, several private individuals who allegedly benefited from the scam have also been taken into custody. Investigators have found that, in many cases, large loans were sanctioned in the names of individuals who were unaware of the transactions. The findings suggest systemic abuse of internal controls and possible collusion between bank staff and external entities. In response to the widening investigation, the ANSCB Board has officially suspended Murugan and Kalivaran. A separate internal probe has also been launched by the bank to verify the allegations raised in the police FIR and to assess potential governance failures.
The Registrar of Cooperative Societies has already called for a forensic audit of the bank’s loan disbursal practices over the past five years. The outcome of both the police investigation and the internal review is expected to shape the future of ANSCB’s institutional framework and may lead to further legal and administrative consequences. Once regarded as a cornerstone of cooperative finance in the islands, the ANSCB now faces an unprecedented trust crisis. As more details emerge and legal proceedings advance, the bank’s leadership — past and present — is likely to remain in the spotlight.
