Bombay HC refuses urgent hearing to Kochhars seeking release

An FIR was registered by CBI in January 2019 that charged Chanda Kochhar with cheating and criminal conspiracy and for causing loss to ICICI Bank by sanctioning loans to Videocon Group of companies

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to grant an urgent hearing to former managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, Chanda, and her husband Deepak Kochhar seeking release in the ICICI bank loan fraud case.

Advocate Kushal Mor appearing for the couple called their arrest illegal and sought an urgent hearing before the vacation bench. He argued before a vacation bench of justices Madhav Jamdar and S.G. Chapalgaonkar and said arrest under The Prevention of Corruption Act requires detailed sanction under Act. The arrest has been carried out after four years, which is a violation of section 41A (notice of appearance before police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Mr. Mor said the plea is for quashing of First Information Report (FIR). The court however said there is no urgency in quashing. You can apply for bail in regular court also.”

Mr. Mor argued, there is urgency as the arrest is illegal right from inception. The court however refused an urgent hearing and said, “You can seek circulation on January 2 (when the regular court re-opens).”

On December 26, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot was also arrested and sent to CBI custody for three days. The court also extended the agency’s custody of Kochhars for three days. The court said, “To unearth real facts in respect of alleged offense, custodial interrogation of the accused is very important as they need to confront the newly arrested accused (Mr. Dhoot) who is also not cooperating like the present accused (Kochhars).“

An FIR was registered by CBI in January 2019 that charged Ms. Kochhar with cheating and criminal conspiracy and for causing loss to ICICI Bank by sanctioning loans to Videocon Group of companies in contravention of the rules and policies of ICICI Bank during the relevant period. These loans given to Videocon Group of companies have turned Non-Performing Asset (NPA) and thus resulted in the wrongful loss to ICICI Bank and wrongful gain to the borrowers and accused persons.

As per CBI, “From June 2009 to October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned six high-value loans to various Videocon Group companies. On August 26, 2009, a Rupee Term Loan (RTL) of ₹300 Crore was sanctioned to Videocon International Electronics Limited (VIEL) in contravention of the rules and policy by the sanctioning committee. Ms. Kochhar was one of the members of the sanctioning committee, who in a criminal conspiracy to cheat ICICI Bank and in pursuance of criminal conspiracy on the same day dishonestly by abusing her official position sanctioned this loan in favour of VIEL.”