Mumbai court extends CBI custody of Kochhars, Dhoot till Thursday

Mumbai, Dec 28 (IANS) A special court here on Wednesday extended the CBI custody of former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group head Venugopal Dhoot by a day till Thursday.

While the Kochhars were nabbed on Friday, Dhoot was arrested by the CBI on Monday in connection with a loan fraud case. The were produced before the special CBI court by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after their custody ended on Wednesday.

Special judge S.M. Menjoge heard the arguments of the CBI special public prosecutor A. Limosin who sought extension of the trio's custody by two more days, which the defence team opposed, before granting a day's additional custody for further probe into the matter.

The development came a day after the Bombay High Court had declined to accept a plea moved by the Kochhars challenging their arrest and seeking quashing of the CBI's FIR of 2019.

Among other things, the CBI has charged the trio with criminal conspiracy and corruption after the ICICI Bank extended credit facilities of Rs 3,250 crore to the Videocon Group, violating banking norms and RBI guidelines, as per a RTI reply.

The CBI said that in 2009, the bank's loan sanctioning committee headed by Chanda Kochhar had misused her position by approving a loan of Rs 300 crore to the Videocon Group, contravening the bank's own rules and policies.

Soon after the loan was sanctioned, Dhoot transferred a sum of Rs 64 crore to Deepak Kochhar's company, NuPower Renewable Ltd, and later, the Videocon Group turned into a non-performing asset in 2017, thereby causing a loss of Rs 1,730 crore to the ICICI Bank.

The other companies named by the CBI include Videocon International Electronics Ltd., Videocon Industries Ltd., and Supreme Energy Private Ltd.

The entire matter was exposed after a whistle-blower highlighted the alleged scams in the bank around 2016, and in 2018 Chanda Kochhar first took voluntary retirement and subsequent to a damning report by retired Supreme Court Justice B. N. Srikrishna, was sacked by the bank, with accompanying implications.

The high-profile arrests of the Kochhar couple and Dhoot by the CBI in the past five days have once again rocked the Indian banking and corporate sectors.