The Bombay high court on Thursday granted bail to Deepak Kochhar, husband of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last September under the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the alleged ICICI Bank- Videocon money laundering case.
The single-judge bench of justice Prakash D Naik granted Kochhar bail on furnishing personal bond of ₹3 lakh and sureties. Kochhar has been directed to surrender his passport with authorities and cooperate with the probe.
A special court had rejected his bail plea in December last year following which, Kochhar approached the high court.
Also Read | Money laundering case: Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot gets bail
Both Chanda and Deepak Kochhar were booked by the ED under the PMLA after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against the couple, Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others. The central agencies are investigating their alleged involvement in illegally sanctioning about ₹1,875 crore loan to the Videocon Group.
The ED probe has allegedly revealed that ICICI Bank disbursed a loan to Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) on September 7, 2009, when Chanda was at the helm and the very next day, a part of the loan received by VIEL group was transferred to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRL), a company belonging to Deepak. ED termed the amount transferred from Videocon to NuPower as proceeds of crime.
{{/usCountry}}The ED probe has allegedly revealed that ICICI Bank disbursed a loan to Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) on September 7, 2009, when Chanda was at the helm and the very next day, a part of the loan received by VIEL group was transferred to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRL), a company belonging to Deepak. ED termed the amount transferred from Videocon to NuPower as proceeds of crime.
{{/usCountry}}On February 12, the special PMLA court granted bail to Chanda Kochhar, on a bond of ₹5 lakh.