The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last week filed a chargesheet against former ICICI Bank managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot and six others in connection with quid-pro-loan case amounting to ₹3,250 crore.
The charge sheet has been submitted in the registry of the Mumbai sessions court and is still under scrutiny. After scrutiny, the copies of the chargesheet will be given to accused and then presented before the special CBI court for taking cognizance.
CBI yet to obtain sanction from ICICI Bank
The central agency is yet to obtain sanction from ICICI Bank to prosecute Chanda Kochhar as required under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1985.
Kochhars were arrested on December 23, 2022, in Delhi and brought to Mumbai the next day. They were charged for alleged irregularities in ICICI’s loans to six firms of the Videocon Group. Dhoot was arrested three days later, on December 26, for a disguised payoff to Deepak Kochhar.
The Bombay High Court granted interim bail to Kochhars on January 9 and to Dhoot on January 20.
Loans sanctioned by Chanda Kocchar
According to the CBI, ICICI Bank, in June 2009 and October 2011, sanctioned a Rupee Term Loan (RTL) of ₹1,875 crore to six companies of the Videocon Group for the purpose of enabling them to repay the unsecured loan availed by these companies from M/s Videocon Industries Limited (VIL).
These loans were sanctioned after Chanda Kochhar became the MD and CEO and while she was on the loan committee, two of these loans -- RTL of ₹300 crore to M/s Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and RTL of ₹750 crore to M/s VIL – were cleared. Besides, the bank had also released the security available in the form of FDR of ₹50 crore in the accounts of M/s Sky Appliance Ltd. and M/s Techno Electronic Ltd without any justification, said the CBI.
ICICI says it has not suffered any wrongful loss
The central agency alleged that after ₹300 crore loan was granted to VIEL, Deepak Kochhar received kick back of ₹64 crore. The central agency is probing the transaction by which a flat in Mumbai, valued around ₹5.25 crore, was also transferred to a Kochhar family trust.
However, Kochhars lawyers have maintained that Chanda Kochhar cannot be booked or prosecuted for the charge of corruption as ICICI Bank has refused to grant sanction to prosecute her. Also, the ICICI Bank wrote a letter to the agency in July 202I, stating that it had not suffered any wrongful loss due to any of these transactions and stated that there were “errors of facts in the CBI FIR.”
