Chanda Kochhar cheated bank by sanctioning Rs 3250 cr, received kicbakcs into her husband firm, says CBI

New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) Former CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar duped the bank and helped Videocon in getting a loan of Rs 3,250 crore by violating the rules, and in return her husband Deepak Kochhar's firm was given Rs 64 crore, revealed the CBI which is probing the loan fraud case.

According to information, the probe agency initiated the preliminary enquiry on December 8, 2017 into the matter, involving bank officials and the Videocon Group.

"It was alleged that the ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities of about Rs 3,250 crore to Trend Electronics Ltd, Century Appliances Ltd, Kail Ltd, Value Industries Ltd and Evan Fraser & Co India Ltd, all companies belonging to Videocon Group promoted by Venugopal Dhoot. The officials of ICICI Bank Ltd sanctioned credit facilities to these companies in violation of Banking Regulation Act, RBI Guidelines and Credit Policy of the bank," read the FIR accessed by the IANS.

There were allegations that Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables Ltd (NRL) through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) and also transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route. It was done between 2010 and 2012.

The CBI official said that they conducted a through probe to complete the preliminary enquiry as allegations were serious in nature.

The official said that they learnt that between June 2009 and October 2011 ICICI Bank sanctioned 6 high value loans to various Videocon Group companies.

In 2009, loan of Rs 300 crore was sanctioned to Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) in contravention of the rules and policy by the sanctioning committee.

"Chanda Kochhar was one of the members of the sanctioning committee, who in criminal conspiracy to cheat ICICI Bank and in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, dishonestly by abusing her official position sanctioned the loan in favour of VIEL," the CBI has alleged.

The CBI official said that a day after getting the loan, Dhoot transferred an amount of Rs 64 crore to NRL, the firm of Deepak Kochhar, from VIL through his company SEPL. This was the first major capital received by NRL to acquire its first power plant.

The CBI has said that it was ill gotten money received by Chanda Kochhar.

(Atul Krishan can be approached at [email protected])