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'Chanda Kochhar may end up in prison', her husband was warned: CBI chargesheet

Aug 06, 2023 10:50 AM IST

The chargesheet, filed in March before the special CBI court in Mumbai, became available last week.

Mumbai: Deepak Kochhar, husband of former MD and CEO of ICICI bank, Chanda Kocchar, had threatened Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot to transfer a flat at CCI Chambers in Churchgate to them or else his wife would declare all the loan accounts of Videocon Group as non-performing assets (NPA), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet stated.

Mahesh Punglia, another chartered accountant connected to Dhoot, in his statement, said that Deepak Kocchar had approached Dhoot for investing <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>64 crore in his company and in return, Chanda Kochhar would help in getting loans from the bank. (HT PHOTO)
Mahesh Punglia, another chartered accountant connected to Dhoot, in his statement, said that Deepak Kocchar had approached Dhoot for investing 64 crore in his company and in return, Chanda Kochhar would help in getting loans from the bank. (HT PHOTO)

The chargesheet, filed in March before the special CBI court in Mumbai, became available last week. It also revealed that Dhoot had warned Deepak Kochhar that the transfer of the flat would land his wife in trouble, and she could end up in prison.

Also Read: Decoding ICICI-Videocon loan fraud case in which Chanda Kochhar was arrested

The CBI initiated a probe into the irregularities in the grant of 1,875 crore in loans to six companies of Videocon Group when Chanda Kochhar was at the helm of affairs at the private bank. The loans were later restructured, and the total dues were shown to be 1,730 crore, of which 1,033 crore was outstanding when an FIR was registered.

The CBI, in its chargesheet, has attached statements of two chartered accountants connected to Dhoot, who described how Deepak Kochhar lured Dhoot to invest 64 crore in his company and later coerced Dhoot to transfer the CCI Chambers flat to their family trust.

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

The statement of Atul Galande, a chartered accountant associated with Videocon group companies, revealed that Deepak Kochhar coerced Dhoot to transfer the ownership of the flat to him, failing which Deepak threatened to ruin Dhoot.

Galande in his statement said that the CBI questioned him about a meeting held between Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar in 2016. Galande went to see Dhoot for some documentation when he noticed the two were engaged in an altercation.

“There was a nasty altercation going on between Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar, who was telling that the flat at 45 CCI Chambers belonged to him,” Galande said in his statement. “Dhoot told him that he had paid 5.38 crore to State Bank of India Home Finance Ltd. and released the title of flat, as such it belonged to him. Dhoot added that he had allowed Kochhars to stay there free of cost does not mean it was Deepak Kochhar’s flat,” Galande said in his statement.

He added, “Deepak Kocchar became infuriated and told Dhoot to sell all the shares of Quality Appliance Pvt. Ltd. at 11 lakh, this way flat would be transferred to his family trust Quality Advisor, otherwise Chanda Kochhar would declare his loan accounts with ICICI Bank NPA.”

Galande added that Dhoot had warned Kochhar to not get the flat transferred in such a way, as it could land Chanda Kochhar in trouble. “Dhoot told him not to transfer the flat in such a way as Chanda Kocchar would be in trouble, and she would land up sharing a jail room with Indrani Mukherjee, who was lodged at Byculla jail then. An infuriated Deepak Kochhar told Dhoot to listen to his advice, otherwise, he would ruin him,” Galande said in his statement.

The chargesheet mentioned another instance where Deepak Kochhar allegedly negotiated a deal taking reference to Chanda Kochhar’s position.

Mahesh Punglia, another chartered accountant connected to Dhoot, in his statement, said that Deepak Kocchar had approached Dhoot for investing 64 crore in his company and in return, Chanda Kochhar would help in getting loans from the bank.

“Deepak Kochhar met Dhoot in the office of Videocon and asked for an investment of 64 crores for setting up a Wind Power Division. He created a web structure for incorporation of a new venture for his wind power division and named it NuPower Renewables Limited,” Punglia said in his statement. “The entire plan was hatched for extracting investment from VIL and then issuing share warrants convertible into equity on conversion, ensuring his future ownership of NuPower Renewables Limited investment through Supreme Energy Private Limited to camouflage the transaction.”

“Deepak Kochhar used to tell that Chanda Kochhar has not disclosed the relationship of her husband with Videocon Group as it would attract conflict of interest,” Punglia said in his statement who was later made one of the directors of NuPower Renewables Limited.

This was confirmed by Navin Sharma Head of Business Internal audit of ICICI bank in his statement recorded on January 4, 2023.

Sharma in his statement claimed that, “the Bank came to know about the same only on April 30, 2018 when the same was disclosed by Smt. Chanda Kochhar to the Bank in reply to SEBI’s query regarding investment of M/s VIL in M/s NRL. The RTL of Rs. 300 crore was sanctioned to M/S VIEL on 26/08/2009 and till then Smt. Chanda Kochhar had not disclosed to the Bank that her husband Shri Deepak Kochhar had business dealings with M/S VIL.”

However, as per RBI rules it was mandatory for her to disclose about the business dealing of her husband with Videocon group of companies, whose proposal for loans she was dealing with. Besides, that as per rules she should not have been part of the committee deciding on the loans.

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