It is alleged that Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot had given a loan of Rs 64 crore to a firm he had jointly promoted with Deepak Kochhar, six months after his group got the Rs 3,250 crore loan.
Deepak Kochhar and Chanda Kochhar (Photo: NuPower Renewables/IANS)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed an FIR against Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar, husband of former ICICI CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, in the Rs 3,250 crore loan case.
Raids by the probe agency are underway at four locations in Mumbai, and Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Searches are also underway at Videocon’s Mumbai office.
The agency had registered a preliminary enquiry against her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group officials and others for its probe to determine any wrongdoing or otherwise in the sanction of the loan to the Videocon Group by the ICICI Bank as part of a consortium of banks in 2012.
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It is alleged that Venugopal Dhoot had given a loan of Rs 64 crore to a firm he had jointly promoted with Deepak Kochhar, six months after his group got the Rs 3,250 crore loan.
The CBI said the money was part of a loan of Rs 40,000 crore which Videocon received from a consortium of 20 banks led by the State Bank of India.
The expose was based on a complaint filed by a whistleblower, who flagged Kochhar’s alleged impropriety and conflict of interest in a letter to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.
Chanda Kochhar stepped down in October last year after she was accused of conflicts of interest, lack of disclosures and quid pro quo while extending loans to the now-bankrupt Videocon Industries.
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