ED attaches ₹25.08 Cr and 13.6 lakh promoter shares; Electrotherm's frozen bank balances now total ₹59.4 Cr

At 17:44 on Saturday evening, September 26 — after the week's last session had closed — Electrotherm (India) told the exchanges that the Directorate of Enforcement's Ahmedabad zonal office had issued a Provisional Attachment Order under Section 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act a day earlier, on September 25. The order attaches balances of ₹25.08 crore lying in two of the company's bank accounts, and — for the first time in this disclosure chain — reaches the promoters' equity itself: 6,98,275 shares held by Shailesh Bhandari, Promoter and Executive Vice Chairman, and 6,59,500 shares held by Mukesh Bhandari, Promoter and Ex-Chairman. Because the disclosure landed after close on a Saturday, the market has not yet traded on it; Monday, September 28 is the first session that can — and it is also the day of the company's 40th AGM.

Adding the new ₹25.08 crore to the ₹34.29 crore the filing says was frozen earlier, ₹59.37 crore of the company's own bank balances now sit under freeze or attachment — about 5.4% of the ₹1,108.6 crore market capitalisation at the September 25 close. The attached promoter shares are a separate, larger number: at that ₹870 close they compute to roughly ₹118 crore, though the order itself values them at the NSE price on the date the CBI FIR was registered — a price the filing does not state. The disclosure describes attachment and freezing of the balances; it does not state what operational restrictions, if any, apply to the accounts beyond that.

The underlying case is not new, and the filing lays out its arithmetic. The CBI's Banking Securities and Fraud Branch, Mumbai registered an FIR against the company and its directors in December 2021, on a Bank of India complaint alleging a loss of ₹81.97 crore — the difference between outstanding dues of ₹631.97 crore and the ₹550.00 crore at which Bank of India assigned the loan to Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company on June 30, 2014. The filing states the FIR has been disclosed in the company's financial statements and annual reports since 2022. The company and Shailesh Bhandari petitioned the Gujarat High Court in April 2024 to quash the FIR; the court issued notice on April 26, 2024, and the petition is pending. Their challenges to the account freezes and to the ED's Enforcement Case Information Report are likewise pending, and the ED's complaint before the Special Court for PMLA Cases at Ahmedabad awaits hearing on cognizance.

1. 30 Jun

   Bank of India assigns its Electrotherm loan — outstanding dues ₹631.97 Cr — to Edelweiss ARC for ₹550.00 Cr. The ₹81.97 Cr difference is the loss later alleged in the CBI FIR.

2. 26 Apr

   Gujarat High Court issues notice on the petition by the company and Shailesh Bhandari (filed April 2024) to quash the CBI FIR registered in December 2021 on Bank of India's complaint.

3. 17 Jan

   First of five company disclosures (through Aug 4, 2026) covering the ED search, freezing of bank accounts, Gujarat HC permission to operate the accounts, and release of a seized car against a ₹3.20 Cr fixed deposit receipt.

4. 4 Aug

   Company discloses that the ED has filed a complaint under PMLA Sections 44(1)(b) and 45(1) before the Special Court for PMLA Cases at Ahmedabad, against the company and both promoters.

5. 25 Sept

   ED issues the Provisional Attachment Order under Section 5(1) — ₹25.08 Cr in two company bank accounts, plus 6,98,275 shares of Shailesh Bhandari and 6,59,500 shares of Mukesh Bhandari.

6. 26 Sept

   Disclosure reaches the exchanges at 17:44 IST on Saturday, after close.

7. 28 Sept

   First trading session that can react — also the 40th AGM, 10:00 a.m. via video conference; remote e-voting closes Sunday, Sep 27, 5:00 p.m.

The share attachment is where this order goes beyond its predecessors. The 13,57,775 attached shares equal 10.7% of Electrotherm's 1,27,42,814 shares outstanding — and 35.7% of the promoter group's entire 29.87% holding (38,05,727 shares as of June 30, 2026). The filing does not state what restrictions the attachment places on those shares. For ownership context, the promoter group also recorded an inter-se transfer two weeks earlier: on September 10, Rakesh Bhandari gifted 80,000 shares (0.63% of equity) to Suraj Shailesh Bhandari, disclosed under SAST Regulation 29(2) as an off-market transfer within the promoter group.

The September 25 close of ₹870 is 31.9% below the 52-week high of ₹1,277 set on July 6, and 29.3% below that day's ₹1,230.50 close — a slide that has been running for a quarter and, on the record in the filings, predates this order becoming public. September 25 itself, the day the ED issued the order, closed −1.2%; but the order reached the exchange only on Saturday evening, so that move cannot be read as a reaction to it. Prior disclosures in this chain drew measured responses: when the ED's Special Court complaint was disclosed after close on August 4, the next session closed −0.2%. The one outsized volume day in the window, September 11 (2,25,365 shares), coincides with a bulk cross — 8 Square Capital sold and Radiant Global Fund bought 2,15,725 shares at ₹951.82.

The financial backdrop is what gives ₹59.37 crore of immobilised bank balances its weight. Electrotherm runs on thin margins — 2.45% OPM in Q1 FY27 — and swung through two loss quarters in the middle of FY26 before returning to a ₹6.93 crore quarterly profit. The same filing record includes a July 30 disclosure of defaults on payment of interest and principal on bank loans, and the FY26 annual report was filed with a Statement on Impact of Audit Qualifications. Against quarterly profits of that size, cash equal to more than eight quarters of Q1 FY27 net profit now sits attached or frozen — though the company has previously obtained Gujarat High Court permission to operate frozen accounts, and the filing does not quantify any operational impact beyond the amounts themselves.