The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that former ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar, who was arrested on Monday night in connection with a money laundering probe, worked in tandem in a conspiracy to extend a loan to Videocon Group and then used an “elaborate structure/web of entities” for layering a bribe of Rs 64 crore.
Deepak Kochhar, according to the ED, not only actively engaged in laundering proceeds of crime and projecting it as “untainted,” but continued to have access to the laundered money. Interestingly, after Deepak Kochhar was arrested around 8.06 pm in ED’s Mumbai office, the agency informed Chanda Kochhar on telephone that her husband had been arrested.
In its remand document submitted in a Mumbai Prevention of Money Laundering Act Act (PMLA) court on Tuesday while seeking 14 days’ custody, the ED said that Deepak Kochhar’s arrest was “qualitatively more elicitation oriented” and absolutely necessary since he has been totally non-cooperative and needs to be taken to Delhi to be confronted with voluminous evidence so that the agency can decipher the complete money trail.
The ED added that various persons examined by it in the case are linked to various “sham transactions” and several documents have been recovered showing details of other companies controlled by Deepak Kochhar.
{{/usCountry}}The ED added that various persons examined by it in the case are linked to various “sham transactions” and several documents have been recovered showing details of other companies controlled by Deepak Kochhar.
{{/usCountry}}Also read: ED probes over 24 transactions in Deepak Kochhar’s accounts. It includes one by his wife
Deepak Kochhar.was sent to ED’s custody until September 19. His lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, argued that the arrest was illegal.
“This arrest and remand will not stand scrutiny in higher courts,”Aggarwal told HT, adding that his client joined the investigation and submitted 10,000 pages of documents in two years, and was arrested in a case punishable with seven years’ imprisonment “which is illegal” . According to the amended Criminal Procedure Code, an accused may not be arrested for offences in which the maximum punishment is seven years.
At the heart of the case are allegations of loans for favours and conflict of interest. According to the ED investigation, details of which were accessed by HT, ICICI Bank extended a loan of Rs.300 crore to (Rs 283.45 crore was the actual disbursed amount) to Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) on September 7, 2009, following which Rs 64 crore was transferred to Deepak Kochhar’s company NuPower Renewables Ltd (NRL) through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd, the very next day.
NRL was started by Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar together; Dhoot later transferred control of it to Kochhar.
ED has prepared a detailed flowchart on how money moved from Videocon’s various companies and bank accounts to finally reach NRL, a company controlled, owned and managed by Deepak Kochhar from 2012.
“Chanda Kochhar was part of decision making process and chairperson/member of the recommending/sanctioning committees for other loans sanctioned to Videocon Group by ICICI Bank,” it added.
SEPL, ED said, was acquired by Pinnacle Energy (a family trust of Deepak Kochhar).
“…an elaborate structure/web of entities was created to ostensibly hold this amount of Rs 64 crore. Loan funds travelled from VIL to NRL through SEPL, but two intermediaries were brought in for purpose of layering,” it added. The money was used by Deepak Kochhar for purchase of properties (wind farm projects of 33.15 MW capacity), the agency added.
The agency has claimed that Deepak Kochhar was given multiple opportunities to rebut the allegations against himself but his stand has been contrary to the records of the case. “He also wilfully withheld information which was in his exclusive knowledge.”
ED has also identified an overseas transaction in Deepak Kochhar’s company.
Officials hinted that Venugopal Dhoot and Chanda Kochhar may also soon be called for questioning on the basis of Deepak Kochhar’s custodial interrogation.
Calls made to Chanda Kochhar’s mobile number failed to connect and WhatsApp messages did not elicit a response.
In January 2019, Chanda Kochhar was sacked as chief executive of ICICI Bank, a post to which she was appointed in 2009, with retrospective effect after a panel indicted her on several counts. The ICICI Bank board terminated her services following a meeting where it discussed the report that found the former banker to have breached the bank’s code of conduct.