New Delhi: Deepak Kochhar, husband of the former CEO and CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar, has been sent into the custody of the Directorate of Enforcement on Tuesday for questioning until 19 September by the PMLA special court in Mumbai.
Today a team of Emergency Department officials was seen escorting Deepak Kochhar from the Department of Education office in Mumbai to a special court for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
ED officials arrested him yesterday in connection with the ICICI Bank-Videocon case.
The case concerns the alleged misappropriation cited in loans granted by ICICI Bank to Videocon.
In January this year, the agency had provisionally seized real and personal property consisting of plans, land, seized cash, plants and machinery, located in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, for a total of ₹Rs 78.15 million held by Chanda Kochhar, her husband, and companies owned or controlled by him.
The assets were seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case of a loan from ICICI Bank. ED initiated an investigation after filing a case under PMLA on the basis of FIR for illegal sanction of loans worth ₹Rs 1,875 million to the Videocon group of companies.
“The investigation revealed that ₹64 crore, from the loan of ₹Rs 300 million sanctioned by a committee headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics Limited, were transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL, formerly known as NuPower Renewables Limited, a company of Deepak Kochhar, Chanda Kochhar’s husband) by VIL on 8 of September. 2009, just one day after the loan was disbursed by ICICI Bank, “the ED had previously said.
“In addition, the net income of ₹NRL generated Rs 10.65 crore from these tainted funds. Therefore, the proceeds of crime amount to ₹Rs 74.65 crore was transferred to / generated in NRPL, “he had said.
The accusations led Chanda Kochhar, who had been one of India’s few high-ranking female bankers, to resign from her position at ICICI Bank almost two years ago.
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