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Special court sends former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, husband to CBI custody for 3 days
Mumbai: A special court on Saturday remanded former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation till Monday
Mumbai: A special court on Saturday remanded former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar to the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation till Monday.
The federal agency had arrested the Kochhar duo on Friday evening in Delhi and brought them to Mumbai on Saturday morning. They were produced before the special CBI court, where prosecutors A Lemozine and PKB Gaikwad sought their three-day custody.
The agency informed the court that the Kochhars were arrested in connection with a case the CBI had registered in January 2019 for loans given by ICICI Bank to six of Videocon Group firms when Chanda Kochhar was the bank’s managing director and CEO. The agency said loans worth ₹1,875 crore were given to the companies, which were reduced to ₹1,730 crore after a restructuring, and an amount of ₹1,033 crore was still outstanding.
In its application seeking custody, the agency said that in June 2009 and October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned a rupee term loan (RTL) of ₹1875 crore to six companies of the Videocon Group to enable them to repay the unsecured loan availed by these companies from Videocon Industries.
All these loans were sanctioned after Chanda Kochhar took over as CEO of the bank, said the plea. She was also on the loan committee when two of these loans were cleared -- RTL of ₹300 crore to Videocon International Electronics and RTL of ₹750 crore to Videocon Industries. Besides, the bank had released the security available in the form of fixed deposit receipt of ₹50 crore in the accounts of Sky Appliance and Techno Electronic without any justification.
The agency added that after the transaction of loan granted to Videocon International Electronics of ₹300 crore, an amount of ₹64 crore was received by Deepak Kochhar as kickback. The agency informed the court that it is probing the transaction by which a flat in Mumbai, valued around ₹5.25 crore, was transferred to the family trust of the Kochhar duo.
“The flat was under litigation for possession between Videocon Industries Limited and Shri Deepak Kochhar. Subsequently, the flat (valued at ₹5.25 crores in 1996) was transferred to Quality Advisor, a family trust of Shri Deepak Kochhar at meagre amount of ₹11 lacs in 2016,” CBI said in its remand plea.
The agency further stated there was a violation of provisions of banking transactions and of guidelines laid down by the Reserve Bank of India. The agency also filed a plea to add the charge of Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by banker) of the Indian Penal Code, which provides a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
Objecting to the remand plea, the couple’s counsel, advocate Amit Desai, said the arrest of the couple was illegal and they cannot be remanded to CBI custody.
Desai contended that the case has been under investigation since 2018, when the CBI began its preliminary probe. He pointed out that they had not been arrested for so many years and there were no allegations that the Kochhars attempted to hamper the probe and their detailed statements with supporting documents have all been submitted with the Enforcement Directorate.
Pointing out that the main beneficiary of the loans (Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon group) has not been arrested, Desai referred to the letter written by ICICI Bank to the agency in July 202I, stating that the bank had not suffered any wrongful loss due to any of these transactions and stated that there were “errors of facts in the CBI FIR.”
The defence also relied upon the order of adjudicating authority in connection with proceedings for attachment of Kochhar’s flat at CCI Chambers in Mumbai, under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Desai pointed out the authority clearly said the transaction of ₹64 crore was independent of the loan given to Videocon by the bank.
After hearing both the sides, special CBI judge SM Menjoge remanded the couple to CBI custody till Monday. “Perusal of the case diary makes it clear that the offence is of serious nature. As far as arguments of the advocate of the accused is concerned for the innocence of the accused, it cannot be inferred at this stage of remand,” said the court.
