A special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) while issuing process against the accused in the ICICI - Videocon fraud case last month and summoning them before it on 12 February, has said in its detailed order that it appears that former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar had misused her official position in granting loans to Videocon’s Chairman and MD VN Dhoot.
“After going through the submissions, written complaints and statements recorded under PMLA, it appears that accused Ms. Chanda Kochhar had misused her official position in granting loan to accused Mr. Venugopal Dhoot and/or Videocon group companies,” Additional Sessions judge Abhijeet A. Nandgaonkar said.
The court added that it appears she “got illegal gratification/undue advantage through her husband accused Mr. Deepak Kochhar, per se quid-pro-quo web transactions, created by the accused persons through various companies for siphoning off money and proceeds of crime.”
Judge Nandgaonkar said that hence he is of the opinion that material is sufficient to proceed against the accused persons. Since Deepak Kochhar is in custody, the court had directed that summons be served upon him by jail authority.
As per the agency’s case, a day after ICICI Bank sanctioned Rs 300 crore to Videocon International Electronics Limited (VIEL), Rs 64 crore was sent by Dhoot through a company to another Nupower Renewables Private Limited managed and controlled by Deepak Kochhar. Deepak’s wife Chanda was a chairperson of the committee, which had sanctioned the loan. An amount of Rs 1,575 crore that was sanctioned by the bank to Videocon Group companies had turned non-performing assets. Chanda was involved in the decision-making process in sanctioning these loans, the agency has alleged.
