Chanda Kochhar on Annual Leave, Not Indefinite: ICICI Clears Air

The decision comes after the ICICI bank directors initiated an independent probe over alleged cases of impropriety.

ICICI Bank has denied reports stating that Chanda Kochhar has been asked to go on an indefinite leave, BloombergQuint reported. The CEO is going on annual leave, the bank said on 1 June

The clarification comes on the heels of a 1 June Livemint report, that quoted an anonymous source as saying that Kochhar has been asked to go on an indefinite leave after the bank’s Board of Directors instituted a "comprehensive enquiry" to look into alleged cases of impropriety.

The Livemint report stated that a majority of the seven independent directors were in favour of asking Kochhar to go on leave. The enquiry will be led by a retired Supreme Court judge and will be completed in two months starting next week, the report adds.

“A new whistleblower complaint came 15-20 days back. It came to our notice as well,” the report quotes the source as saying. “The charges made against the bank and its CEO are quite harsh and the independent directors thought that such allegations cannot be dealt with internally”.

Without detailing the allegations, the bank, in a regulatory filing on 30 May, said the enquiry will be headed by an independent and credible person. “The scope of enquiry would be comprehensive and include all relevant matters arising out of and in the course of examination of the facts and wherever warranted, use of forensics/e-mail reviews and recordal of statements of relevant personnel etc,” the filing said.

The bank did not reveal the details of the complaint but said that the whistleblower had alleged ‘quid pro quo’ in the course of Chanda Kochhar’s work in dealing with certain customers/borrowers of the bank, BloombergQuint reports.

Here’s a timeline of events, as listed by BloombergQuint, at ICICI Bank before it decided to initiate a probe:

• On 31 March, the CBI said it is conducting a preliminary enquiry into the matter. It named Deepak Kochhar (Chanda Kochhar’s husband), the Videocon Group and unknown others.
• On 3 April , Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables got a tax notice as the Income Tax Department started to look at possibilities of evasion.
• By mid-April, PTI reported that an RBI enquiry conducted into allegations of quid pro quo in 2016 had thrown up no evidence of conflict of interest. However, the RBI had recommended that relevant agencies look into the funding patterns of some of the firms associated with Deepak Kochhar. BloombergQuint confirmed this with a senior former RBI official.
• On 16 April, the bank disclosed that capital market regulator SEBI had sought clarifications based on news reports alleging conflict of interest. The bank has duly responded to this, the lender said.
• On 25 May, the bank disclosed that it has received another notice from SEBI regarding non-compliance with certain provisions of the listing agreement.

(With inputs from IANS, BloombergQuint)