ICICI Bank loan fraud case: Chanda Kochhar, husband bought flat, worth Rs 5.3 crore, for just Rs 11 lakh, CBI tells court
ICICI Bank loan fraud case: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said that former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar misused her position and “misappropriated” the Bank's funds for her own use and got Rs 64 crore as “illegal gratification”.
In its chargesheet, CBI said that Chanda Kochhar granted loans to ineligible Videocon Group firms. The prosecutor said that Chanda Kochhar accepted a $64 million gratuity and that the family benefited from the transfer of a flat in Mumbai's Churchgate area, owned by Videocon.
CBI said that Kochhars got a flat in CCI Chambers in Churchgate in 2016 for just Rs 11 lakh while her son bought a flat in the same building on the same floor in November 2021 for Rs 19.11 crore.
It is to be noted that Chanda Kochhar, her husband and Videocon Group's promoter, V N Dhoot, have been charged with corruption in the Rs 3, 250 crore loan fraud scam, and all three were named in CBI's 11,000-page chargesheet lodged in late March this year.
The agency has also made Dhoot’s nephew, Saurabh Dhoot, a former director of Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL), and the company’s chartered accountant, Dattatraya Kadam, as accused.
In October 2018, Chanda Kochhar, now 59, stepped down as the CEO and MD of the bank, and charges were put that she “favoured Videocon Group” for the loan, a consumer electronics and oil and gas exploration company.
Last month, CBI had received sanction from ICICI Bank to prosecute its former MD and CEO. After the chargesheet was filed, the case came up for hearing for the first time on July 3.
Highlighting the findings recorded by CBI in its probe, special prosecutor for CBI A Lemozine said that Chanda Kochhar had conspired with the other accused and sanctioned credit facilities to the firms of the Videocon Group, even when the entities were not eligible for any loans.
On August 26, 2009, a Rupee Term Loan (RTL) of Rs 300 crore was sanctioned to Videocon International Electronics Limited by the ICICI Bank committee of directors, which was headed by Chanda Kochhar. The loan was disbursed on September 7.
