New Delhi: The Bombay High Court on Monday ordered the release of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak, observing that their arrest was “not in accordance with the law”.
The Kochhars – and later Videocon Group head Venugopal Dhoot – were arrested in December for their alleged involvement in providing a Rs 3,000 crore loan to the Group.
The Kochhars argued before court that their arrest was illegal as sanction under Section 17A was mandatory under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Section 17A initiates a probe which the arresting agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had not done, according to a report.
The court then ordered their release from judicial custody on a cash bail of Rs 1 lakh.
The CBI has named the Kochhars, Venugopal Dhoot, along with companies NuPower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy (SEPL), Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL), and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in the FIR for “criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2019”.
The CBI has alleged that ICICI Bank — under Chanda Kochhar– had sanctioned credit facilities of Rs 3,250 crore to companies of the Videocon Group promoted by Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines, and the credit policy of the bank.
According to the CBI, a sanctioning committee headed by Chanda Kochhar in 2009 approved a term loan of Rs 300 crore to VIEL in contravention of the rules and policies of the bank by abusing her official position as a public servant.
The day after the loan was disbursed, Dhoot transferred Rs 64 crore from VIEL to Deepak Kochhar’s NRL through SEPL.
Also read: Bombay HC reserves order on pleas of Chanda, Deepak Kochhar challenging their arrest till Monday