Chanda Kochhar and her husband, arrested in the Videocon loan fraud case, will be released by the order of Bombay HC on a cash bail of Rs 1 lakh each, and will have to cooperate with the CBI.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on January 9, Monday, granted bail to the former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak after the CBI arrested them in a connection with the Videocon loan fraud case.
The honorable court in its hearing, freed the Kochhars’ today and said their arrests last month were illegal. “Arrest not in accordance with the law,” the court observed. It also asked the Kochhars to surrender their passports to the CBI.
While, Chanda Kochhar has been at Byculla district women’s jail, Deepak Kochhar was at Arthur Road jail after the arrest.This is a huge relief for Chanda Kochhar that came from the Bombay High Court just before the wedding of the Kocchars’ son on January 15.
In the plea, the Kochhars challenged the arrest made by the CBI on December 23, in a connection with the case related to the alleged irregularities in a ₹ 3,000-crore loans provided to Videocon Group, was “illegal” when Chanda kochhar was heading the ICICI bank. Kochhar’s had also questioned the timing of the arrest, which was very close to their son’s wedding.
A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan was hearing the petition, “Accordingly, the petitioner’s arrest was not in accordance with law and not in compliance with section 41 A of criminal procedure code.”The Chairman of the Videocon Group,Venugopal Dhoot, was also arrested in the ICICI loan fraud case by the CBI.
CBI development so far
Earlier, The CBI booked the Kochhar duo and Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot,and registered cases of corruption and conspiracy against them, along with companies NuPower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd, and Videocon Industries Limited.
The CBI also alleges that ICICI Bank sanctioned a loan of ₹ 3,250 crore to the Videocon group in the shed of the violation of Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines and the credit policy of the bank.
The CBI alleged that in a quid pro quo deal, Videocon Chief had allegedly invested crores in Nupower months after the Videocon Group got the Rs 3,250 crore of loan from the ICICI Bank in 2012, the CBI had said in a FIR filed in 2019. This resulted in criminal conspiracy and cheating, the probing agency added.
