Deepak Kochhar was arrested since he remained evasive: ED

The Enforcement Directorate ED which arrested Deepak Kochhar husband of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar over allegations that he had received Rs 64 crore for his company from the Videocon International Electronics Ltd VIEL said that he remained evasive on the questions of money trail in connection with a money laundering case involving loan to the tune of Rs 1730 crore to Videocon group and Venugopal DhootDeepak was arrested on Monday by the ED sleuths after several hours of questioning at its Mumbai office under the sections of Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLAHe was produced before a Special PMLA court on Tuesday which sent him to 11 days ED custody till September 19According to senior ED officials related to the probe on September 7 2009 ICICI Bank snactioned a loan to the tune of Rs 300 crore to VIEL in which Chanda was the Chairman of the sanctioning committeeThe official said On September 8 2009 just one day after disbursement of the loan by ICICI Bank VIEL transfered Rs 64 crore to NRL managed owned and controlled by DeepakFurther net revenue of Rs 1065 crore were generated by NRL from these tainted funds Therefore proceeds of the crime amounting to Rs 7465 crore were transferred to or generated in NRPLNuPower Renewables Ltd NRL which is now known as Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd is Deepaks company Deepak is the cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of NuPower Renewables which was set up in December 2008NuPower Renewables was started as a joint venture between Videocon Groups Venugopal Dhoot family and the Kochhar and Advani familiesMahesh Advani is the brother of Chanda Kochhar When the company was established Chanda Kochhar was the CFO and Joint MD at ICICI Bank Before the setting up of NuPower Deepak was a financial services entrepreneur He has been a Director of NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd since December 24 2008The ED official said that Deepak who had earlier joined the financial probe agency questioning more than 12 times was not cooperating with the agency officials and thus he was arrestedOn many questions related to money trail and financial transactions with the VIEL and Dhoot Deepak remained evasive and noncooperative thus we have to arrest him the official said adding that there are number of financial transactions and money trail that need to be clarified and it was the reason why the ED demanded for his custodial interrogationEarlier the ED had also recorded the statement of Chanda Kochhar on number of occasions The official said that Deepak is being quizzed about the role that his wife played in the sanctioning of loan to VIEL and other companies of the Videocon groupThe ED is also quizzing Deepak about whether he spoke to his wife who was then a senior executive in ICICI Bank in regard to sanctioning of loan and if there was some quid pro quo on the sanctioning of loans involved between him and Videocon groupThe ED action of arresting Deepak comes almost one and half years after the agency filed a money laundering case on the basis of a complaint registered by the CBI Aagainst Dhoot his companies VIEL and Videocon Industries Ltd as well as Chanda Kochhar and her husband DeepakEarlier this year the ED provisionally attached Rs 7815 crore worth movable and immovable assets in possession of ICICI Banks former Managing Director and CEO her husband and the companies ownedcontrolled by himDuring investigations it was revealed that loans were refinanced and new loans aggregating to Rs 1730 crore sanctioned to Videocon Industries Ltd VIL and its group companies and these loans became nonperforming assets NPA for ICICI Bank on June 30 2017Keep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever