The Bombay High Court on Monday, 9 January, granted release on bail to Chanda Kochhar, the former managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI, and her husband Deepak Kochhar in the ICICI Bank-Videocon loan fraud case. The court stated that their arrests were "not in accordance with law."
A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan ruled: "...the petitioner's arrest [is] not in accordance with law and not in compliance with section 41 A of criminal procedure code."
What happened? The Kochhars were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 23 December 2022 over alleged irregularities in loans provided by ICICI to the Venugopal Dhoot-led Videocon Group.
The couple had sought temporary bail to attend their son's wedding, which is to be held on 15 January. In their bail plea, they termed their arrest by the CBI "illegal."
What did Kochhar's counsel say? Rohan Dakshini, the lawyer of the couple, said, "The court granted bail to them on the basis that the arrest was illegal as they had appeared before CBI in compliance with a notice issued under Sec 41 A. Under it, if the person appears there can't be arrest unless it's found they are tampering with evidence."
"None of the circumstances were alleged or demonstrated by the CBI and hence bail was granted to them," Dakshini added.
What is the case about? The CBI had registered cases against the Kochhars and Venugopal Dhoot, along with companies Nupower Renewables, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd, and Videocon Industries Limited. They were accused of criminal conspiracy and corruption.
And then? The central investigation agency claimed that Dhoot, the Videocon promoter, allegedly invested crores of rupees in Nupower, months after the Videocon Group got Rs 3,250 crore as a loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.
It was alleged that the Kochhars sanctioned certain loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with others to cheat ICICI Bank, the CBI had said in a statement after filing the First Information Report (FIR) in 2019.
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