Tag: Chanda Kochhar

  • SC to hear CBI’s plea against interim bail to former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, husband in loan fraud case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the CBI’s plea against grant of interim bail to former ICICI Bank CEO-cum-MD Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar by the Bombay High Court in a loan fraud case.

    A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notice to Chanda Kochhar and her husband on the probe agency’s petition and sought their responses in three weeks.

    Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, said the high court proceeded on a wrong presumption that the offence is punishable with a maximum of seven years imprisonment without considering section 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant) which entails sentence ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.

    The bench asked Raju how section 409 of the IPC came into play when ICICI was a private bank. Raju replied that the bank may be private but it involves public money. The bench said it is issuing notice to the couple and seeking their replies in three weeks.

    The CBI has challenged the January 9 order of the high court granting interim relief to the Kochhars.

    The top court had on October 10 questioned the CBI over not objecting to the repeated extension of the two-week interim bail granted to them in January this year.

    The high court had pulled up the CBI for arresting the couple in a “casual and mechanical” manner and “clearly without application of mind” in the loan fraud case and granted them interim bail.

    The CBI arrested the Kochhars on December 23, 2022, in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan fraud case. The couple had moved the HC challenging their arrest, terming it as “illegal and arbitrary”. They had sought their release from jail on bail by way of an interim order.

    The high court had said the Kochhars’ arrest was not in accordance with the provisions of law and they were entitled to be released on bail, pending the hearing and final disposal of their petitions.

    The grounds for arresting the petitioners (Kochhars), as stated in the arrest memos, are unacceptable and contrary to the reason(s)/ ground(s) on which a person can be arrested, it had said.

    ALSO READ  | SC questions CBI over not objecting to repeated extension of interim bail to Chanda Kochhar, husband

    Apart from the Kochhars, the CBI also arrested Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in the case.

    The central agency has alleged the ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to the companies of the Videocon group in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines and credit policy of the top private lender.

    The CBI had named Chanda Kochhar, who was ICICI Bank CEO and MD from 2009 to 2018, Deepak Kochhar, Dhoot along with a slew of firms – Nupower Renewables (NRL), Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd and Videocon Industries – as accused in the FIR registered under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

    Nupower Renewables is managed by Deepak Kochhar.

    The central agency has alleged as quid pro quo (favour or advantage granted in return for something), Videocon group founder Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) and transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route between 2010 and 2012. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the CBI’s plea against grant of interim bail to former ICICI Bank CEO-cum-MD Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar by the Bombay High Court in a loan fraud case.

    A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notice to Chanda Kochhar and her husband on the probe agency’s petition and sought their responses in three weeks.

    Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the CBI, said the high court proceeded on a wrong presumption that the offence is punishable with a maximum of seven years imprisonment without considering section 409 of the IPC (criminal breach of trust by public servant) which entails sentence ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });

    The bench asked Raju how section 409 of the IPC came into play when ICICI was a private bank. Raju replied that the bank may be private but it involves public money. The bench said it is issuing notice to the couple and seeking their replies in three weeks.

    The CBI has challenged the January 9 order of the high court granting interim relief to the Kochhars.

    The top court had on October 10 questioned the CBI over not objecting to the repeated extension of the two-week interim bail granted to them in January this year.

    The high court had pulled up the CBI for arresting the couple in a “casual and mechanical” manner and “clearly without application of mind” in the loan fraud case and granted them interim bail.

    The CBI arrested the Kochhars on December 23, 2022, in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan fraud case. The couple had moved the HC challenging their arrest, terming it as “illegal and arbitrary”. They had sought their release from jail on bail by way of an interim order.

    The high court had said the Kochhars’ arrest was not in accordance with the provisions of law and they were entitled to be released on bail, pending the hearing and final disposal of their petitions.

    The grounds for arresting the petitioners (Kochhars), as stated in the arrest memos, are unacceptable and contrary to the reason(s)/ ground(s) on which a person can be arrested, it had said.

    ALSO READ  | SC questions CBI over not objecting to repeated extension of interim bail to Chanda Kochhar, husband

    Apart from the Kochhars, the CBI also arrested Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in the case.

    The central agency has alleged the ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to the companies of the Videocon group in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines and credit policy of the top private lender.

    The CBI had named Chanda Kochhar, who was ICICI Bank CEO and MD from 2009 to 2018, Deepak Kochhar, Dhoot along with a slew of firms – Nupower Renewables (NRL), Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd and Videocon Industries – as accused in the FIR registered under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

    Nupower Renewables is managed by Deepak Kochhar.

    The central agency has alleged as quid pro quo (favour or advantage granted in return for something), Videocon group founder Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) and transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route between 2010 and 2012. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • ICICI-Videocon case: HC declines urgent hearing on plea by Deepak Kochhar

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to take up for urgent hearing a plea filed by Deepak Kochhar, businessman and husband of former Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar, seeking to quash proceedings initiated against him by the ED in an alleged money laundering case.

    Deepak Kochchar, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in September last year, had sought urgent hearing in his plea claiming the trial court is likely to frame charges against him on October 1.

    Justice S K Shinde, however, noted that he was not inclined to take up the plea for hearing on an urgent basis.

    ​ALSO READ | Court refuses bail to Deepak Kochhar in money laundering case

    “What is so urgent about this matter? Why should I give priority to this matter? Let the trial court frame charges. Should I hear matters only because the trial court will proceed? Every matter is like that. I am not inclined,” Justice Shinde said.

    The court posted the plea for hearing on September 22.

    Deepak Kochhar has challenged an order of a special court hearing cases filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in which process (notice/summons) was issued based on a prosecution complaint (akin to a chargesheet) as well as all consequential proceedings arising from the same.

    The businessman has claimed that in 2020, the statutory adjudicating authority under the PMLA had clearly stated that the said property was not proceeds of crime.

    ALSO READ | ICICI-Videocon case: Income Tax Department issues fresh notice to Deepak Kochhar

    However, the ED had suppressed the fact before the special court and got an order in their favour, he has claimed.

    In light of this, Kochhar has sought quashing of the PMLA court order.

    The alleged money laundering case being investigated by the ED related to siphoning off six high-value loans from ICICI Bank to various companies of Videocon Industries Ltd.

    According to the ED, the alleged siphoning off is to the tune of Rs 300 crores.

    The ED has alleged that Rs 64 crore, out of Rs 300 crore loan sanctioned by a committee of ICICI Bank headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics, was transferred to another firm, Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL), by Videocon Industries on September 8, 2009, a day after the loan disbursement.

    NRPL was earlier known as Nupower Renewables Ltd (NRL) and is owned by Deepak Kochhar.