Former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar misused her position to grant loans to ineligible Videocon Group firms, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Kochhar, her husband and the group's promoter have been charged with corruption. The prosecutor argued Kochhar accepted a $64m gratuity and that the family benefited from the transfer of a flat in Mumbai's Churchgate area, owned by Videocon, for just $15,000. Kochhar was a member of the loan committee that approved loans of $40m to Videocon from ICICI Bank, the charges allege.
MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday argued before a special CBI court that Chanda Kochhar, former CEO and managing director of ICICI Bank, misused her position to grant loans to Videocon Group firms, which were ineligible for any loans from the bank. The agency also said that the Kochhars got a flat in CCI Chambers in Churchgate in 2016 for just ₹11 lakh while her son bought a flat in the same building on the same floor in November 2021 for ₹19.11 crore.
The central agency made these submissions while urging the court to take cognizance of the chargesheet filed by it against Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and some others. In the last week of March, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against the Kochhars, Dhoot and others. Last month, it had received sanction from ICICI Bank to prosecute its former MD and CEO. After the chargesheet was filed, the case came up for hearing for the first time on Monday.
Highlighting the findings recorded by CBI in its probe, special prosecutor for CBI A Lemozine argued that Chanda Kochhar had conspired with the other accused and sanctioned credit facilities to firms of Videocon Group, even when the entities were not eligible for any loans. “Chanda accepted illegal gratification of ₹64 Crore as a reward and thereby misappropriated the bank’s fund for her own use,” Lemozine argued.
The prosecutor said that Videocon was granted a Rupee Term Loan (RTL) of ₹300 crore on August 26, 2009, by the loan committee of ICICI Bank, which was headed by Chanda Kochhar. The loan amount was disbursed on September 7, 2009.
The CBI prosecutor said that Videocon, through its complex web of companies, transferred ₹64 crore to Deepak’s company M/s NuPower Renewable Ltd (NRL).
Regarding the flat in Churchgate, the prosecutor said that the Kochhars lived in the house which was owned by the Videocon group for years. “She got the said flat transferred to her family trust, where Deepak was managing trustee, only for ₹11 lakhs in October 2016, whereas the flat was valued at ₹5.25 crores in 1996,” Lemozine argued.
The court has now asked the prosecution to submit a list of documents and scheduled further hearing for next Monday.
The CBI had in January 2019 registered a case to probe the alleged irregularities in granting RTLs of ₹1,875 crore to the six firms when Kochhar was the bank’s 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.
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.
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