ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case: Enforcement Directorate probing Rs 389-cr funds received by Chanda Kochhar and family

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has reportedly unearthed dubious transactions to the tune of Rs 389 crore suspected to have been received as kickbacks by Deepak Kochhar’s firm NuPower Renewables from Videocon Group and First Holdings when Chanda Kochhar was the chief of ICICI Bank, said media reports. The ED, which is probing the violation of anti-money laundering laws in the ICICI-Videocon loan case, has been probing these two instances of alleged quid-pro-quo, according to a report in The Economic Times. The ED has detected loans to the tune of Rs 389 crore to NuPower Renewables from Venugopal Dhoot’s Videocon Group and Nishant Kanodia’s Firstland Holdings in lieu of loan sanctioned by ICICI Bank, the report said. [caption id=“attachment_4489463” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Chanda Kochhar. Reuters.[/caption] Meanwhile, another report in Business Standard said that the Enforcement Directorate is now investigating the total loan amount which was sanctioned by ICICI Bank and allegedly routed to the firms of Deepak Kochhar. The agency reportedly detected Rs 500 crore was received as kickbacks by Chanda Kochhar and her family, the report said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought more documents from ICICI Bank relating to Rs 1,875 crore loans given to Videocon Group during the tenure of Kochhar which is under probe by the agency, officials said on Wednesday. The officials refused to give any further details about the nature of documents as the agency is at a crucial stage of determining points on which it may call Kochhar, her husband Deepak and Dhoot, all named as suspects in the CBI FIR, for questioning. The CBI has not issued notice to any of the accused in the FIR for questioning so far, they said. The additional documents have also been sought from NuPower, Supreme Energy and Videocon Group, they said. The agency is going through hundreds of pages of documents seized by it during searches, besides loan records, communication exchanges, meeting discussions, etc. related to the details before it will prepare a questionnaire for the accused, they said. It has issued a lookout circular against Kochhars and Dhoot to prevent them from leaving the country and keep a track of their movements, they said. A lookout notice is an intimation to immigration authorities at all the ports of exit to intimate the investigation agency in case the accused tries to leave the country. The immigration authorities may also detain the person if requested by the agency. Kochhar was on the sanctioning committees deciding two loans—Rs 300 crore to Videocon International Electronics on 26 August, 2009 and Rs 750 crore to Videocon Industries Limited on 31 October, 2011, the FIR has alleged. The loans were issued in alleged violation of laid down policies and regulations of the bank, it alleged. Most of these loans became non-performing assets over the course, causing a loss of Rs 1,730 crore to the bank, it alleged.   — With PTI inputs