The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its chargesheet filed against Chanda Kochhar and eight others in April alleged that the accused had “engineered a plan and design” in December 2008 to get loans sanctioned to Videocon group, after it was announced that Kochhar would be appointed as the MD and CEO of ICICI bank, reports The Indian Express.
A special court in Mumbai took cognisance of the chargesheet by the central probe agency on Wednesday. It has issued summons to the accused to appear before it next month.
“Investigation revealed that Videocon International Electronics Limited, Videocon Industries Limited, Venugopal Dhoot, Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Nupower Renewables Limited, Supreme Energy Private Limited and Saurabh Dhoot engineered a plan and design in December 2008, after the announcement of appointment of Ms Chanda Kochhar as MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, to get sanctioned loans to financially beleaguered Videocon Group,” the chargesheet states.
The chargesheet said that Chanda Kochhar was appointed as the executive director of ICICI Bank in 2001, and later promoted to MD and CEO from May 1, 2009. The decision to promote her “was taken at a board meeting of the bank on December 19, 2008”.
The CBI also claimed that a flat in Mumbai’s Churchgate area, which was linked to the Videocon group, was obtained by Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar for Rs 11 lakh in 2016. Deepak Kochhar is also an accused in the case. It also states that her son Arjun Kochhar had also purchased a flat in the same building on the same floor in November 2021 for Rs 19.11 crore.
The CBI, giving details of how the flat at CCI Chambers was bought by Kochhars in 2016, said that it has collected copies of deeds of transfer of the flats in the building between 2009-2017.
According to the details, the cost of the flat was Rs 5.25 crore in 1995, and Rs 16 crore in 2014, and Rs 18.50 in 2017.
The central probe agency said that Chanda Kochhar was part of some of the committees sanctioning the loans, in violation of the bank loans, as ICICI bank’s policy states that any chairperson, MD or any other director, who is directly or indirectly concerned or interested in any proposal, should disclose the nature of the interest to the Board.