ICICI bank fraud case: PMLA Court rejects Deepak Kochhar plea for post-Covid care in private hospital

The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Friday rejected the plea of former ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar

The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Friday rejected the plea of former ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar to be shifted to a private hospital for post-Covid-19 care.

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Kochhar is presently lodged at Taloja jail after being remanded to judicial custody. He was arrested by ED on September 7 on charges of money laundering and later remanded to the agency’s custody till September 19. In the meantime, he was tested positive for Covid-19 on September 14. Hence, his ED custody was suspended and he was sent to judicial custody. Kochhar was discharged on October 13 after Covid-19 treatment and was remanded to ED custody. The special court had remanded him to judicial custody on October 17.

He had, last week, approached the special court through his lawyers Vijay Agrawal and Aashul Agrawal and requested to be shifted to a private hospital

In his plea, Kochhar stated that he “suffered from an extremely severe and prolonged bout of Covid-19 lasting more than three weeks, with many additional complications including prolonged and severe infection which has impacted the entire body, including lungs and immune system.”

“The applicant is still suffering from prolonged effects of Covid infection. Going into the jail will not be safe for the health of the applicant. It is submitted that even a mild Covid-19 infection can leave patients sick for months after testing negative,” reads his application.