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Videocon loan fraud case: Enough material to proceed against accused, says court

Jul 16, 2023 04:05 PM IST

The CBI had in January 2019 registered a case to probe the alleged irregularities in granting rupee term loans (RTLs) of ₹1,875 crore to the six firms when Chanda Kochhar was the bank’s managing director (MD) and CEO

While taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Chanda Kochhar, former managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, and others, the special CBI court has observed that the loan given to Videocon group companies were in violation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular and there was enough material to proceed against all the accused in the case.

Chanda Kochhar and Deepak Kochhar are facing CBI probe in the ICICI-Videocon loan fraud case. (File Photo)
Chanda Kochhar and Deepak Kochhar are facing CBI probe in the ICICI-Videocon loan fraud case. (File Photo)

A special CBI court had on Wednesday took cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the central agency in March against Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others and issued notices to all the accused.

The CBI had in January 2019 registered a case to probe the alleged irregularities in granting rupee term loans (RTLs) of 1,875 crore to the six firms when Chanda Kochhar was the bank’s managing director (MD) and CEO. The agency had said that the loan amount was reduced to 1,730 crore after restructuring, and an amount of 1,033 crore was still outstanding.

Also Read: ICICI Bank sanctioned 300-crore loan to Videocon Group company when it had no cash flow: CBI

Kochhar was on the loan committee of the bank when two of the loans were approved - RTL of 300 crore to M/s Videocon International Electronics Limited (VIEL) and RTL of 750 crore - to M/s Videocon Industries Limited (VIL), the agency had said. Besides, the bank had released the security available in the form of FDR of 50 crore in the accounts of other group entities - M/s Sky Appliance Limited and M/s Techno Electronic Limited - without any justification, the agency added.

“The allegation pertaining to concealment of facts, committing irregularity while sanctioning of loans, diversion of the loan amount, misutilisation of funds by not using the same the purpose for which it was sanctioned, receiving part of the loan as motive/reward by a public servant through companies established by her husband, concealment of interest in the loan proposal and thereby violating the circulars issued by RBI in this regard as well as illegal gratification received by the public servant, are, prima facie, evident on record,” special judge SP Naik Nimbalkar said in his order.

“Roles of all the accused with regard to the transactions mentioned above can be explained and demonstrated based on these documents. Therefore, at this stage, there are sufficient grounds to hold that, prima facie, a case has been made out in the investigation papers collected by CBI,” the special court said, referring to the evidence gathered by the agency against all the accused.

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