ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case: ED likely to summon Chanda Kochhar, husband again for interrogation

Chanda Kochhar, the former MD and CEO, ICICI Bank and her husband Deepak may be summoned for interrogation again in the Rs 1,875 crore loan scam involving the latter’s firm NuPower Renewables and Videocon Group as the investigation agency is not satisfied with the duo’s answers in the previous rounds of questioning, said a media report. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) may ask the Kochhars to appear before it next week along with certain documents, The Economic Times reported quoting people in the know of the development. [caption id=“attachment_6647791” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Chanda Kochhar. Reuters[/caption] Last week, Kochhar and her husband were summoned by the ED for questioning in connection with ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case. On 16 May, the ED had questioned the former ICICI Bank CEO and her husband for the fourth consecutive day, for about 9 hours. The ED recorded statements of the duo in connection with the investigation into alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in the sanction of Rs 1,875 crore loan disbursed by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group in 2009 and 2011. In another development, the adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) reportedly issued a show-cause notice to the Kochhars, Videocon chairman VN Dhoot and eight others asking why it should not confirm the provisional attachments of certain articles that the ED had seized, the report said. Meanwhile, a team of the ED had recently reached  Singapore in connection with the money laundering case against Kochhars, and Dhoot, according to a report in  The Economic Times. The ED team reportedly talked to the officials of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) of Singapore in connection with companies owned by Deepak’s brother, Rajiv, said the report quoting sources. Early this week, there were reports that Kochhar was planning to take legal options to challenge her ouster from the bank and retrieval of bonuses as well as perks after a panel indicted her in the loan scam. She reportedly shot a legal letter to ICICI Bank objecting to the way her resignation was treated as a termination. She also refused to return the money she got as bonuses and stock options between April 2009 and March 2018, as per the alleged directions by the bank It is alleged that during the tenure of Kochhar, six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore were cleared for the Videocon Group and its associated companies. In two of these cases, she herself was on the sanctioning committees. It was alleged that Videocon Group pumped money into Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables The board of ICICI Bank had repeatedly given a clean chit to Kochhar in the past and refuted issues of conflict of interest. On 28 March 2018, the bank had said, “The board has come to the conclusion that there is no question of any quid pro quo/nepotism/ conflict of interest as is being alleged in various rumours. The board has full confidence and reposes full faith in the Bank’s MD &a CEO, Ms Chanda Kochhar.” (With additional inputs from agencies)