Almost 10 months after The Indian Express first reported the alleged nexus between Venugopal Dhoot-promoted Videocon Group and Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd of Deepak Kochhar, husband of then ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, the CBI has filed an FIR against the Kochhars, Dhoot and firms including Nupower Renewables and Videocon Industries for allegedly cheating ICICI Bank of Rs 1,730 crore until March 2012.
The CBI has also named Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd, Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and unknown public servants as accused in the case. It has alleged “the accused (Chanda Kochhar) sanctioned certain loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with other accused to cheat ICICI Bank”.
The case has been filed under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. On Thursday, a day after it registered the FIR, the CBI conducted searches at four locations — the Mumbai and Aurangabad offices of Videocon Group and offices of Nupower Renewables and Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd in Mumbai.
The agency said it will investigate the role of current and former top ICICI Bank officials including Sandeep Bakshi, MD and CEO of the bank; its former chairman K V Kamath and members of the sanctioning committee of the bank NS Kannan, K Ramkumar, Sonjoy Chatterjee, Rajiv Sabharwal, Homi Khusrokhan and Zarin Daruwala. They will be probed in connection with sanctioning loans of Rs 1575 crore to Videocon Group that turned NPA “resulting in wrongful gain to the borrowers and accused persons”.
ICICI Bank and Chanda Kochhar have been under regulatory scrutiny after The Indian Express first reported on March 29, 2018 that Dhoot provided crores of rupees to a firm he had set up with Deepak Kochhar and two relatives six months after the Videocon Group got Rs 3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012 — on December 8, 2017, the CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) into the sanctioning of the loan.
EXPLAINED
How loan turns NPA with all at top watching
The CBI FIR is telling in how a loan turns into an NPA at India’s second-largest private bank led by a high-profile CEO. It shows how personal-professional lines were blurred and checks and balances failed. The Board has egg on its face given its steadfast support to Chanda Kochhar. All eyes are now on the Board to see how it responds to the CBI’s conclusion that the current CEO also needs to be probed.
The amount was part of the Rs 40,000-crore loan that Videocon Group secured from a consortium of 20 banks led by SBI. Almost 86 per cent of the Rs 3,250 crore loan (Rs 2,810 crore) remained unpaid. The Videocon account was declared an NPA in 2017.