ICICI Chairperson Chanda Kochhar with MD & CEO of ICICI lombard Bhargav Dasgupta during the IPO of ICICI Lombard insurance. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)
BJP MP Udit Raj has written to CBI director Alok Verma requesting him to register an FIR against ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan case.
The agency is currently probing the matter under a preliminary enquiry (PE). The PE has named Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar. PE is initiated to probe whether there is a prima facie case and the evidence is good enough to register an FIR.
Raj has said in his letter that in the face of the seriousness of the allegations, the agency must go ahead with an FIR and conduct custodial interrogation of the Kochhars. “It will be in the fitness of things to register FIR against Deepak and Chanda Kochhar and subject them to custodial interrogation,” he wrote.
Raj has argued that several times in the past PEs have proved to be inconsequential as the agency, despite having substantial evidence, has failed to register an FIR and take the case to a logical conclusion. “I would also request you not to make an excuse of matter being sub-judice since CBI isn’t otherwise barred to arrest the criminals and recover the thousands of crores which has been illegally stashed through layers of in-shore and off-shore trusts in tax havens,” Raj has said.
Deepak Kochhar is being probed by the central agency for the Rs 3,250-crore bank loan granted by ICICI to Videocon Group in 2012. The agency is probing the allegation of alleged ‘quid-pro-quo’ in the loan granted to Videocon by ICICI Bank whose CEO and MD is Chanda Kochhar.
As first reported by The Indian Express on March 29, Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot formed a joint venture with Deepak Kochhar, loaned him Rs 64 crore before he transferred ownership of the lending entity to Kochhar for just Rs 9 lakh. This transfer happened six months after the Videocon Group got a loan from ICICI Bank. Almost 86 per cent of that loan (Rs 2,810 crore) remains unpaid and the Videocon account was declared an NPA in 2017.