The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Deepak Kochhar, the husband of ICICI Bank’s former chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar.
Kochhar is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED for alleged corruption and money laundering and has been named an accused along with her husband in the FIR filed by the former. Both of them have been questioned by the ED multiple times.
She is being probed for alleged irregularities in the granting of loans to the Videocon Group.
The probes started after a whistle-blower complaint alleged that Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon had invested in a company along with Deepak Kochhar and then transferred his holdings to the latter. The complaint linked this to loans issued by the bank to Videocon.
The bank’s board initially backed Chanda Kochhar. However, she stepped down on October 4, 2018. The bank’s board sacked her in January last year, treating her exit as termination.
Kochhar defended herself before ED in March 2019 saying the loans were given on merit and have no link with her husband’s business.
The ED is probing 24 loans aggregating Rs 7,862 crore during Chanda Kochhar’s tenure as the CEO and Managing Director of ICICI Bank. The agency believes these loans were given “illegally and criminally” by the bank to the conglomerate when Kochhar was in charge between 2009 and 2018.
According to an internal investigation report of ED, reviewed by HT, these loans were sanctioned by the private bank to Videocon Group companies between May 2009 and June 2017.
{{/usCountry}}According to an internal investigation report of ED, reviewed by HT, these loans were sanctioned by the private bank to Videocon Group companies between May 2009 and June 2017.
{{/usCountry}}Some of these loans were as high as Rs 2,870 crore (April, 26, 2012, to Videocon Industries Limited [VIL] and its group companies); the most recent was on June 28, 2017 (Rs 166.4 crore to VIL).
Other big loans now being investigated by ED include a Rs 536 crore loan to VIL on September 15, 2016; a Rs 881.4 crore loan, also to VIL, on October 31, 2011; Rs 236 crore to VIL on December 23, 2015; and Rs 180 crore to Videocon Hydrocarbons Holdings Ltd on September 30, 2014.
CBI and ED both allege that the payment of Rs 64 crore into a Deepak Kochhar company, NuPower Renewables, in 2009 was a quid pro quo from Dhoot for a loan to VIL.