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ED provisionally attaches assets of former ICICI bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, husband
In a probe report submitted in court last year, and first reported by HT, ED claimed the flat at CCI Chambers, Churchgate, where Chanda Kochhar lives was an “illegal gain.”
Almost a year after central investigative agencies launched a probe against former ICICI Bank managing director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar for alleged irregularities in the granting of loans to the Videocon Group, the ED on Friday provisionally attached assets belonging to her and her husband, including a flat at CCI Chambers at Church Gate, Mumbai where she lives, and three other properties including farmland, plant and machinery, two investigators said on condition of anonymity.
The book value of all assets is around Rs 78.15 crore while their market value is Rs 600 crore, they added. The book value of CCI Chambers flat alone is Rs 3.5 crore.
A provisional attachment order issued by ED is valid for 180 days till the court confirms the final attachment. The ED can take possession of assets only after final attachment order.
Kochhar’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said the attachments would not hold up in court
“This flat is owned by Mr Deepak Kochhar since 1996 when Ms Chanda Kochhar was at a junior position in the bank and can’t be connected with any crime or money laundering even remotely. This attachment shall never stand judicial scrutiny.”
In a probe report submitted in court last year, and first reported by HT, ED claimed the flat at CCI Chambers, Churchgate, where Chanda Kochhar lives was an “illegal gain”; she has lived there since 1996. The allegation is that this flat was owned by a Videocon entity, QTAPL (Quality Appliances Pvt Ltd, now named Quality Techno Advisors Pvt Ltd, from 2009 till 2016.
The agency also claimed in its report last year that it was looking into 24 loans worth Rs 7,862 crore sanctioned by ICICI Bank to Videocon group companies when Kochhar was the MD-CEO of the bank between 2009 and 2018. The agency suspects that there could be more quid-pro-quo payments to the Kochhars.
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 is being investigated by the CBI and ED for alleged corruption and money laundering and has been named an accused along with her husband Deepak Kochhar in the FIR filed by the former. Both of them have been questioned by ED multiple times.
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 CBI had last year issued a look out circular at all the airports against Kochhar, her husband and Venugopal Dhoot.
