Chanda Kochhar, the former MD, and CEO of ICICI Bank have been granted bail on a bond of Rs 5 lakh by Special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court in ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case.
The former CEO and MD appeared before a special PMLA court on Friday.
The special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) had on January 30 summoned Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and other accused in the case after taking cognizance of the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) charge sheet. Chanda Kochhar appeared before the special Judge A A Nandgoankar and filed 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 filed a criminal case for money laundering based on an FIR registered by the CBI against the Kochhars, Dhoot, and others.
The ED has alleged that Rs 64 crore, out of a loan amount of Rs 300 crore sanctioned 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 September 8, 2009, a day after the disbursement of the loan. NRPL was earlier known as Nupower Renewables Limited (NRL) and is owned by Deepak Kochhar.
Taking cognizance of the charge sheet, Judge A A Nandgoankar had observed, “After going through the submissions, written complaints and statements recorded under PMLA, it appears that Chanda Kochhar had misused her official position in granting the loan to accused Dhoot and/or Videocon group companies.”