Chanda Kochhar, the former CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar were arrested by the CBI on Friday in connection with alleged irregularities in a loan of more than 3,000 crore given to the Videocon Group while she was the head of the private sector bank. The allegation that Chanda Kochhar, 59, had favoured Videocon Group, a consumer electronics and oil and gas exploration company, led to her resignation as CEO and managing director of ICICI Bank in October 2018. A year after that, ICICI said that it would classify Kochhar’s departure as “termination for cause,” claiming that she had violated the bank’s code of conduct and standards.
The CBI has charged her of criminal conspiracy and fraud about suspected irregularities in a loan of 3,250 crore made to the Videocon Group in 2012, which resulted in the asset becoming a non-performing one for the ICICI Bank.
Deepak Kochhar and other members of her family, according to a whistleblower, allegedly profited from those transactions.
A few months later, Videocon group received a loan from the bank, the case’s accusations state that former Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot spent millions of rupees in NuPower Renewables, a business started by Kochhar.
The loan was sanctioned by a committee of which Kochhar was a member, alleges the CBI. The agency says she misused her official position and “got illegal gratification/undue benefit through her husband from Dhoot for sanctioning ₹ 300 crore to Videocon.”
“I reiterate that none of the credit decisions at the bank are unilateral … the organisation design and structure obviate the possibility of conflict of interest,” she had said in a statement.
(With inputs from agencies)
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