ICICI Bank loan fraud: CBI files charge sheet against Kochhars, Venugopal Dhoot

The CBI has filed a charge sheet against former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot in a Rs 3250 crore loan fraud case officials said on SaturdayThe agency has filed the charge sheet under sections 120B criminal conspiracy and 409 criminal breach of trust of the Indian Penal Code IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act among others they saidThe Central Bureau of Investigation CBI has named nine entities including companies and individuals according to the officialsThe CBI has moved to file its final report before a special court in Mumbai without the mandatory requirement of sanction to prosecute Chanda Kochhar from ICICI Bank the officials saidAlso Read ICICI bankVideocon loan case Chanda Kochhar husband Deepak Kochhar releasedA letter had been sent to the bank seeking the sanction but its response is awaited they saidGenerally the special court waits for the sanction before proceeding with taking cognisance of the charge sheet and subsequently initiating the trial if warrantedThe special CBI court is yet to take cognisance of the charge sheet the officials saidIn the case of denial of sanction to prosecute the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act will not apply they saidThe agency arrested the Kochhars and Dhoot in December last yearOpposing the CBIs plea for remand senior advocate Amit Desai appearing for the Kochhars had brought to the courts notice a letter ICICI Bank wrote to the CBI in July 2021 stating that it incurred no wrongful loss in any of the transactions under questionThe Bombay High Court had granted the couple bail on January 9 underlining that the CBIs move to arrest them was casual mechanical and perfunctory and clearly without application of mindThe HC had noted that in the present case the grounds of arrest are merely stated as noncooperation and not giving full and correct disclosureThe reason given in the arrest memos to arrest the petitioners having regard to the facts as stated aforesaid appears to us to be casual mechanical and perfunctory clearly without application of mind the court had observedThe bench held the arrest of the Kochhars was in violation of Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC which mandates sending notice for appearance before the police officer concernedThe CBIs FIR names the Kochhars and Dhoot along with Nupower Renewables NRL managed by Deepak Kochhar Supreme Energy Videocon International Electronics Limited and Videocon Industries Limited as accusedThe agency has alleged that ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3250 crore to the companies of the Videocon Group promoted by Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act RBI guidelines and the credit policy of the bankIt also alleged that as a part of a quid pro quo Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables through Supreme Energy Private Limited SEPL and transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route between 2010 and 2012This 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