ED files case against Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Chief Venugopal Dhoot

After an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case in the high profile loan case involving former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 7, Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988.

According to sources, the Mumbai unit of Enforcement Directorate (ED) will now probe the case. The Money Laundering Act allows ED to attach the properties.

Under scanner is the funding of Rs 64 crores to Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables Private Limited (NRPL) by way of “unsecured fully convertible debentures (FCDs) by Dhoot’s group company of Videocon will be looked into by ED, said people quoted above.

“The funding of Rs 64 crore had come from a back to back issue of convertible debentures to another counterpart, whose identity could not be established”, the RBI had said in its enquiry report.

According to the agency, Videocon was given loans after Chanda Kochhar took charge as MD-CEO of ICICI Bank on May 1, 2009. She was a part of the sanctioning committee which approved a loan of Rs 300 crores to Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and Rs 750 crore to Videocon Industries Ltd (VIL).

“ICICI Bank sanctioned 6 high-value loans to various Videocon companies between June 2009 and October 2011 when Chanda Kochhar was MD-CEO of the bank,” said a CBI source.

According to the CBI’s FIR, “Total loan of Rs 1,575 crore given by ICICI Bank to the Videocon group had turned non-performing assets (NPA). Along with Chanda Kochhar, CBI will probe the roles of top ICICI bank officials including Sandeep Bakshi, K Ramkumar, Sonjoy Chatterjee, NS Kannan, Ms Zarin Daruwala, Rajiv Sabharwal, K V Kamath and Homi Khusrokhan in its case. They were part of various committees in the bank.

On December 8, 2017, the CBI initiated a preliminary inquiry on the allegations that ICICI bank sanctioned a loan of Rs 3,250 crore to various companies of the Videocon Group owned by Venugopal Dhoot. “It was alleged that as part of quid-pro-quo, Dhoot invested over Rs 64 crore to the companies associated with Deepak Kochchar, husband of Chanda Kochhar,” said an officer.