Special court extends CBI custody of Kochhars, Dhoot by one day

A special court on Wednesday extended CBI custody of Chanda Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot, MD of Videocon Group till Thursday. CBI counsel A Limousin on Wednesday sought the custody of the three for another two days

Mumbai: A special court on Wednesday extended CBI custody of Chanda Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot, MD of Videocon Group till Thursday.

Mumbai, Dec 26 (ANI): Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials produce former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar before the CBI court in connection with an alleged ICICI Bank-Videocon loan fraud case, in Mumbai on Monday. (ANI Photo) (ANI)

CBI counsel A Limousin on Wednesday sought the custody of the three for another two days. The agency contended that considerable time was lost in hearing of their pleas for home food and such other applications and visit of family members during the previous remand period.

In its remand plea, the CBI claimed that the “accused persons are required to be interrogated to unearth the criminal conspiracy with other unknown public servants and unknown private persons.” Also, the agency said that they are required to be interrogated thoroughly on the voluminous documents pertaining to the case.

Opposing the plea, advocate Kushal Mor, representing the Kochhar couple, pointed out that there was hardly any difference in the remand applications filed by the central agency earlier and on Wednesday, and submitted that for the agency to seek extension of remand there must be some progress in the probe.

“The arrest itself is in violation of the law. It is made without sanction and therefore the Kochhars should be released forthwith,” Mor argued.

Dhoot’s lawyer SS Laddha contended that the prosecution had to satisfy the court for further remand, which was missing from the remand plea. He pleaded that the probing agency’s application should be rejected.

The special court, however, granted the CBI one more day to interrogate the trio.

The Kochhars were arrested on December 23 in Delhi over alleged irregularities while providing loans to six firms of Videocon Group. Dhoot was arrested on Monday for allegedly paying bribes to the duo for getting loans.

According to the CBI, between June 2009 and October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned Rupee Term Loans (RTL) 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. She was on the sanctioning committee when two loans—RTLs of ₹300 crore to M/s Videocon International Electronics Limited and ₹750 crore to M/S Videocon Industries Limited were sanctioned.

The bank had also released the security in the form of fixed deposits of ₹50 crore in the accounts of Videocon Group companies—M/s Sky Appliance Ltd and M/s Techno Electronic Ltd.

It was 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 under refinance of domestic debt. The account of M/s VIL was declared NPA with effect from June 30, 2017 and present outstanding in the a/c is ₹1,033 crore.