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Loan fraud case: Court allows CBI to slap stringent charge on Chanda Kochhar
A court on Friday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to invoke section 409 of the Indian Penal Code against Chanda Kochhar, which provides for life imprisonment as the maximum punishment.
A court on Friday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to invoke section 409 of the Indian Penal Code against Chanda Kochhar, which provides for life imprisonment as the maximum punishment.
Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, who was arrested in a loan fraud case, is now facing an additional charge of “criminal breach of trust by a banker”.
The special CBI court said it was the prerogative of the investigating officer (IO) to decide what charges could be added or deleted on the basis of material collected during investigation.
“If it is transpired to the IO that a particular section is required to be added or deleted on the basis of material collected by him, he can very well add or delete the section and can intimate about it to the court. It is not necessary for him to seek prior permission of the court for this purpose,” the court said.
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The court turned down Kochhar’s objection to the agency’s move and said when the plea was submitted by the CBI, the in-charge court (vacation court) accepted it, and hence, no further order was required to be passed in this regard.
The CBI had on December 24 moved an application before the special court to add section 409 against Kochhar. This came a day after she and her husband Deepak Kochhar were arrested.
The couple’s lawyers, Amit Desai and Kushal Mor, had argued that since her rights were affected, the defence should be heard before the court permitted the agency to add the charge.
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The Kochhars had been claiming that there were no procedural irregularities in the bank granting loans to six Videocon Group firms, promoted by Venugopal Dhoot. They had also relied on a letter submitted by the bank to the CBI which stated that there was no wrongful loss on account of the granted loans. Dhoot was arrested on December 26.
The CBI’s counsel, A Limousin, had contended that at this stage the accused had no locus standi.
According to the CBI, between June 2009 and October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned rupee term loans (RTLs) of ₹1,875 crore to six companies of Videocon Group. All these loans were sanctioned after Chanda Kochhar took over as the MD and CEO of the bank.
The agency further alleged that on April 26, 2012, the existing outstanding of the six RTL accounts were adjusted in RTL of ₹1,730 crore sanctioned to M/S VIL for refinancing domestic debt and eventually the M/s VIL account was declared NPA on June 30, 2017. The present outstanding in the account, according to the CBI, is ₹1,033 crore.
