Chanda Kochhar has been the MD and CEO of ICICI Bank. Her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 7th of September. Deepak Kochhar’s investment in the company is continuously under investigation by the Videocon Group, the lending company of ICICI Bank.
The case is about loan misuse. According to sources in India Today, the ED had called him for questioning after receiving several pieces of evidence against Deepak Kochhar. When Deepak could not properly tell about many transactions, the authorities arrested him.
What’s the matter?
ICICI Bank gave a loan of Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon Group in April-2012. Later, Videocon Group did not repay about Rs 2,810 crore of the loan to the bank. The loan turned into a non performing asset ie NPA. NPA is a loan whose recovery is not possible for the bank.
It is alleged that in return for this loan, Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot had provided financial benefits to Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar, the ex MD and CEO of ICICI Bank. In exchange for the loan, Videocon company owner Venugopal Dhoot sold his two companies to Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar for a mere nine lakh rupees. It is also alleged that Chanda Kochhar helped Venugopal Dhoot get a bank loan.
F.I.R in January 2019
After all these allegations, a case of preliminary inquiry was registered against all of them in March 2018. Then in January 2019, the CBI filed an FIR against Chanda, Deepak, and Venugopal. After the FIR was registered, CBI raided the offices and other locations of Venugopal Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar. On January 24, 2018, CBI raided Videocon’s Mumbai head office and Aurangabad office. Apart from this, the investigation was also done in the offices of Deepak Kochhar related companies – New Power and Supreme Energy. Now, Deepak Kochhar has been arrested after about one and a half years. #24x7newsalert
