Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank. File
| Photo Credit: SHASHI ASHIWAL

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday ruled the arrest of ICICI Bank’s former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar, and her husband Deepak Kochhar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Videocon loan case as illegal. Justice Anuja Prabhudessai and Justice N.R. Borkar confirmed to grant the couple interim bail on January 9, 2023.   

Giving the verdict, the Bench rejected CBI’s arrest reasons memo in December 2023 that non-cooperation and non-disclosure of true facts of the case. “Article 20(3) is an essential safeguard in criminal cases and is meant to be a vital safeguard against torture, and other coercive methods used by investigating agencies. Hence, merely because an accused does not confess, it cannot be said that the accused have not cooperated with the investigation,” the judges said announcing the verdict.  

Also Read | Explained | What is the Videocon-Chanda Kochhar case all about?  

The couple was arrested by CBI for alleged irregularities in a loan of ₹3,250 crore granted to the Videocon Group in the year 2012. The CBI’s charges claimed that the former Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot allegedly invested crores of rupees in NuPower Renewables, a company founded by Deepak Kochhar, months after the ICICI Bank loan was granted to the Videocon group. 

In January 2023, the couple was released by an interim order after a coordinate bench held their arrest was prima facie not in accordance with section 41A and section 41(1)(b)(ii) of the CrPC. 

New Delhi:

A day after the CBI opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged irregularities in the construction of the Delhi Chief Minister’s official residence, a defiant Arvind Kejriwal threw down a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Kejriwal won’t bow down… no matter how many fake investigations he (the Prime Minister) files,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said in his first response to the CBI move.

Representative file image.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

About 100 companies dealing in agro-products came under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over the past five years on the charge of cheating banks of loans running into thousands of crores of rupees. This year, so far, more than two dozen firms trading in items ranging from rice and spices to oil have been accused of bank fraud involving over ₹1,400 crore.

One of the major cases registered earlier this year pertains to S.A. Rawther Spices Private Limited, which exports and imports spices and coffee. The company took credit facilities from the Jammu & Kashmir Bank. As alleged, the company and its functionaries caused a loss of ₹352.72 crore to the bank. It failed to repay the loan on a regular basis and the account was declared a non-performing asset in September 2017.

Among the others, Shree Basant Oils Limited has been accused of bank fraud to the tune of ₹124 crore, and Saurav (India) Private Limited has allegedly caused wrongful loss of about ₹126 crore to its lenders.

Last year too, multiple cases were registered against the business groups trading in agro-products. One such case pertained to Shri Jalaram Rice Industries in an alleged ₹114-crore bank fraud case.

On December 31, 2021, the CBI had booked Shakti Bhog Foods Limited and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of 10 banks to the tune of ₹3,269.42 crore. Among those named in the FIR are the company’s managing director, Kewal Krishan Kumar, and directors Siddharth Kumar and Sunanda Kumar. The company is into the manufacture and sale of items like wheat flour (under the well-known brand name Shakti Bhog), rice, biscuits and cookies in northern States. In the other States, it has third party tie-ups with various entities.

“In all these cases, the lending banks have alleged diversion of funds through different modus operandi. Shell companies are used to route the misappropriated money, which is many a times round-tripped and invested in related entities. Also, properties are acquired by the accused persons using the funds. In order to get more credit facilities, the companies often inflate their net worth,” an agency official said.