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CBI likely to move Supreme Court against HC relief to Kochhars
A day after the Bombay high court granted bail to former ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar, people familiar with the matter said that CBI is studying the court order and plans to appeal against it in the Supreme Court.
A day after the Bombay high court granted bail to former ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar, and criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for arresting them “without application of mind”, people familiar with the matter said that the federal agency is studying the court order and plans to appeal against it in the Supreme Court, .
Chanda Kochhar was released from Mumbai’s Byculla prison while Deepak Kochhar was released from the city’s Arthur Road prison on Tuesday morning. CBI arrested them on December 23 last year in the Videocon loan case on the grounds that they were not cooperating. Three days later, Videocon Group Chairman, Venugopal Dhoot was also arrested .
Adverse remarks by the Bombay HC in its order may have larger ramifications on other bank fraud probes, the people cited above added, and is one of the key reasons for the investigating agency to approach the apex court.
“CBI doesn’t make unnecessary arrests ever. Decision to arrest a person in such sensitive matters is taken based on robust evidence and a through process is followed involving senior officers and the legal team. Such adverse remarks by the high court in its order may impact other bank fraud probes involving hundreds and thousands of crores. Therefore, it is necessary to appeal against this order,” said one of the two, a CBI officer, who didn’t want to be named.
CBI’s legal team is studying the high court order and a decision on appeal is expected soon, said the second person, also a CBI officer.
In its order the HC said: “The reason given in the (CBI’s) arrest memos to arrest the petitioners (Kochhars), having regard to the facts as stated aforesaid, appears to us, to be casual, mechanical and perfunctory, clearly without application of mind. The ground for the arrest of the petitioners mentioned in the arrest memos is in clear breach of the mandatory provisions of Sections 41 and 41-A and 60-A of CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code)”.
Besides ‘adverse remarks’ affecting CBI’s future bank fraud probes and its credibility, another strong ground for CBI considering appeal, the second officer said, is that “two different judges didn’t find any anomalies in the arrest process and duly granted the custody of Kochhars, on December 24, and of Dhoot on December 26, 2022, respectively”.
Elaborating on its charges that Kochhars and Dhoot didn’t cooperate in investigations and were evasive, which will be part of CBI’s appeal, the first CBI officer said “we wanted to confront three of them in the ICICI loan probe so summons were issued to them twice on different dates before the arrest but they didn’t come to the CBI together”.
The federal anti-corruption probe agency has claimed that between June 2009 and October 2011, ICICI Bank sanctioned Rupee Term Loan (RTL) of ₹1,875 crore to six companies of Videocon Group for the purpose of enabling them to repay the unsecured loan availed by these companies from M/s Videocon Industries Limited. “All these loans were sanctioned after Chanda Kochhar took over the charge of ICICI Bank as MD & CEO. Out of the six loans, Chanda Kochhar was one of the committee members in two loans i.e. RTL of ₹300 Crore to M/s VIEL (Videocon International Electronics Ltd) and RTL of ₹750 Crore to M/s VIL (Videocon Industries Ltd),” CBI has alleged.
The agency has sought to link the loans to a ₹64 crore payment by Dhoot to a company managed by Deepak Kochhar.
As on April 2012, CBI has added, the existing outstanding of the six loans were adjusted in rupee term loan of ₹1,730 Crore, sanctioned to VIL under refinance of domestic debt.
According to the agency, Videocon owes ₹1,033 crore to the ICICI Bank.
Chanda Kochhar stepped down from the ICICI Bank in October 2018 after allegations of irregularities surfaced against her.
