CBI books Chanda Kochhar and two others in Videocon loan case

Guwahati: Chanda Kochhar, the former ICICI bank chief, has been booked in Videocon loan case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its FIR. Ms. Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot too are named in the CBI FIR.

The action on the Videocon loan case has come almost after ten months of filing a preliminary enquiry (PE) to probe Kochhars' dealings with the Videocon chief. The trio is booked under criminal conspiracy, cheating and prevention of corruption act. The charges against Chanda Kochhar says that she had allegedly sanctioned loans to private companies with a criminal conspiracy and had the intention of cheating with the ICICI bank along with her other accused associates.

CBI officials conducted a raid at Videocon offices at Nariman Point, Mumbai and Aurangabad along with also launching an investigation at NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL), a company run by Deepak Kochhar.

As per allegations Videocon chairman Dhoot has provided many crores of rupees to a Deepak Kochhar promoted firm and this was done 6 months after Videocon received a loan of Rs 3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012. This indicates that Dhoot, after receiving the loan from ICICI in Chanda Kochhar’s cooperation, pays back in her husband’s firm. This amount was just one part of an Rs. 40,000 crore loan that Videocon group had secured from a consortium of 20 banks led by State Bank of India. According to proves obtained by the CBI, Dhoot had paid Rs 64 crore to NRPL in 2010.

Under the PE (Preliminary Enquiry), the investigation bureau collected materials that act as prima facie to registering an FIR against the three accused. Had the investigators give up right in the beginning by stating that there is not enough material to register a case against them, the PE would have been closed after receiving approval from the CBI director.

As a part of the investigation and interrogation process, CBI examined people like Rajiv Kochhar who is Chandra Kochhar’s brother-in-law in relation, Deepak Kochhar and the Videocon, ICICI and NRPL employees.

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