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ICICI Bank’s former CEO, Chanda Kochhar gets bail in ICICI-Videocon loan case

By Sanah Shah

Chanda Kochhar, the former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, has been granted bail on a bond of Rs 5 lakh by Special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court in the ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case. The court has suspended her rights to leave the country without consent.

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The Kochhar appeared before a special PMLA court on Friday 12th February.

The special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had on 30th January called for the presence of Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and other held accountable in the case after becoming aware of the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) charge sheet.

Chanda Kochhar appeared before the special Judge A A Nandgoankar and applied for a bail application through her lawyer Vijay Agarwal. The court asked the ED to file its reply on her bail application.

The ED had arrested Deepak Kochhar in September 2020 after it booked a criminal case for money laundering based on an FIR registered by the CBI against the Kochhars, Dhoot and others.

The ED has claimed that Rs 64 crore, out of a loan amount of Rs 300 crore warranted by a committee of ICICI Bank headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics Limited, was transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) by Videocon Industries on 8th September 2009, a day after the payout of the loan.

NRPL was previously known as Nupower Renewables Limited (NRL) and is owned by Deepak Kochhar, said the ED.

After the charge sheet came to light, Judge A A Nandgoankar said, “After going through the submissions, written complaints and statements recorded under PMLA, it appears that Chanda Kochhar had misused her official position in granting a loan to accused Dhoot and/or Videocon group companies.”

“And (it appears) she got illegal gratification/undue advantage through her husband…through various companies for siphoning off money and proceeds of crime. The material produced by the ED constitutes the commission of the offence, and it is “sufficient to proceed against the accused persons”, the court had said.

Sanah Shah

Sanah Shah is an undergraduate student and an enthusiast of journalism and business. Currently interning at Businessupturn.com, she founded The Liberal Canon (Theliberalcanon.medium.com), NMIMS University's first newsletter. Her interest lies in the fields of business, fashion and publication. She can be contacted at sanahshah30@gmail.com

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