The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against former ICICI Bank managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group chief Venugopal Dhoot for alleged money laundering charges among others before a special court in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The agency has filed a chargesheet along with five trunks of supporting documents before the court. The case has been adjourned to November 11.
The court said, “It is informed that the chargesheet is pending for scrutiny of five trunks of original documents. The intimation (of it being filed) is taken on record.”
The agency has also named Videocon International Electronics Ltd(VIEL), Videocon Industries Ltd, Nu Power Renewables Pvt. Ltd and Supreme Energy Pvt. Ltd in the chargesheet.
The charges levelled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the Kochhar family is that of illegal sanctioning of loans worth Rs 1,875 crores by ICICI bank to Videocon Group, during the tenure of Chanda Kochhar between June 2009 and October 2011.
According to ED, it learnt that loans were refinanced and new loans adding up to Rs 1,730 were sanctioned to Videocon Industries Ltd(VIL) and its group companies. These loans became non-performing assets (NPA) for ICICI Bank in June 2017.
The probe agency alleged that in 2009, Chanda Kochhar headed committee sanctioned a loan of Rs 300 crore to Videocon International Electronics Ltd. (VIEL).
It is alleged by the agency that Chanda Kochhar allegedly misused her office and received illegal gratification out of this loan. It is alleged that out of this amount Rs 64 crore was transferred by VIEL to NuPower Renewables, owned by Deepak Kochhar, her husband, on September 8, 2009, a day after the loan was disbursed by the bank. The ED also alleged that a net revenue of Rs 10.65 crore generated by NuPower Renewables from these “tainted funds”.
However, Kochhar has maintained that this was a pure business transaction and not a case of illegal gratification.
The ED has attached provisionally attached assets worth Rs 78.15 crore so far of the Kochhar family including an apartment at CCI Chambers in South Mumbai alleged acquired through Videocon Group firms.
Deepak Kochhar was arrested by ED in September 2019 in connection to the case and is currently in judicial custody.