CBI books ICICI Bank’s ex-boss Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak and Videocon MD Venugopal Dhoot for fraud 

Chanda Kochhar.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation, on Thursday, booked former ICICI managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon managing director Venugopal Dhoot in the ICICI-Videocon cheating case. The investigation agency also carried out raids at several locations, including Videocon’s Mumbai offices and the premises of NuPower Renewables – Deepak Kocchar’s company.

Apart from these three top corporate honchos, several other senior ICICI Bank executives have also been named in the FIR.

Chanda Kochhar is accused of allegedly receiving “illegal gratification” through her husband, Deepak Kochhar, from Venugopal Dhoot for sanctioning a term loan of  ₹300 crore to Videocon International Electronics Ltd. Apart from this, she has allegedly influenced decisions of relevant panels for disbursing loans.

The CBI FIR says: “On August 26, 2009, a rupee term loan of ₹300 crore was sanctioned to Videocon International Electronics Ltd in contravention of rules and policy by the sanctioning committee … Kochhar was one of the members of the sanctioning committee, who abused her official position sanctioned this loan in favour of VIEL. … On September 7, 2009, this loan was transferred to VIEL ... On September 8, 2009, Dhoot transferred ₹64 crore to NuPower Renewables, managed by Deepak Kochhar... this was the first major capital received by NRL to acquire its first power plant …”

The CBI, on the role of other senior officials, most of whom have left ICICI Bank, said between June 2009 and October 2011, loans of ₹1,575 crore were sanctioned by various panels having senior officials of the bank as members. The FIR says roles of former ICICI chairman KV Kamath, current ICICI Bank MD Sandeep Bakhshi, K Ramkumar, Sonjoy Chatterjee (CEO, Goldman Sachs India), NS Kannan, Zarin Daruwala (CEO, Standard Chartered India), Rajiv Sabharwal (CEO, Tata Capital) and Homi Khusrokhan may be probed.

The beneficiaries of these loans were: Millennium Appliance India Ltd (₹175 crore), Sky Appliances Ltd (₹240 crore), Techno Electronics Ltd (₹110 crore), Applicomp India Ltd (₹300) and VIL (₹750 crore).

On the alleged role of her husband, the FIR said Deepak Kochhar, Venugopal Dhoot and Saurabh Dhoot were directors of NRL, incorporated in 2008). Venugopal Dhoot allegedly allotted 1,997,500 warrants to Deepak Kochhar at the rate of ₹10 per warrant, on an initial payment of ₹1 per warrant. In June 2009, shares of NRL held by Venugopal Dhoot and Kochhar’s Pacific Capital Services Pvt Ltd were transferred to Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd, which became a 95 per cent shareholder of NRL. Dhoot resigned from the directorship of SEPL in January 2009 and subsequently transferred control of the company to Deepak Kochhar by selling/transferring his shares to Deepak Kochhar-managed Pinnacle Energy Trust.

ICICI shares drop

ICICI Bank shares saw a drop by 1 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange, on Friday morning, taking its losing run to the seventh straight session. By the time it closed, ICICI Bank shares were down 1.86 per cent at ₹358.20 per share.

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