Loan fraud case: Kochhars, Venugopal Dhoot under judicial custody till Jan 10
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Thursday sent former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot to judicial custody till January 10 in connection with a loan fraud case.
The Kochhars were arrested last Friday by the CBI and Dhoot was arrested on Monday. The three were produced before special judge SH Gwalani at the end of their earlier remand on Thursday.
The CBI, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, did not seek their custody further and thus the court sent all three accused to judicial custody till January 10, 2023.
The CBI had named the Kochhars and Dhoot, along with companies Nupower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL), Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in its First Information Report (FIR) registered in 2019 under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Also read: Loan fraud case: Court remands Kochhars, Dhoot in CBI custody till Dec 28
The CBI also alleged that ICICI Bank had sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to companies of the Videocon Group promoted by Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines, and credit policy of the bank.
According to the CBI, a sanctioning committee headed by Chanda Kochhar in 2009 approved a term loan of Rs 300 crore to VIEL in breach of the rules and policies of the bank by abusing her official position as a public servant.
Also read: From Forbes’ lists to CBI handcuffs: The rise and fall of Chanda Kochhar
However, the day after the loan was disbursed, Dhoot transferred Rs 64 crore to NRL from VIEL through SEPL.