Income Tax dept not satisfied with Deepak Kochhar's explanation on funds received from Mauritius

NEW DELHI: Deepak Kochhar — the founder director of NuPower Renewables and husband of ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar — in his response to the Income Tax department notice has not given any details explaining the source of Rs 325 crore his NuPower had received from two Mauritius-based entities. The department has given him further time till Friday (April 13) before fresh proceedings are initiated against him.

A source said the I-T department is also scrutinising the returns of NuPower and Kochhar along with others associated with him to know the source of income. His company was recently in news for having received investments from Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot who is under investigation by the CBI for a bank loan of Rs 3,250 crore.

Two companies — First Land Holdings Ltd and DH Renewables Holdings — are under the scrutiny of the tax department for their transactions with Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables for which the I-T investigation has asked Kochhar to explain the source of funds.

“Kochhar has given partial details of certain entities associated with his NuPower Renewables but has not given any details of the source of funds his company received from Mauritius,” a source said. The department is trying to ascertain the source of these funds Kochhar’s companies had received in Mauritius and if they were linked with Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot.

Deepak Kochhar is already being investigated by the CBI in connection with alleged investments made by the Videocon chairman in his NuPower Renewables. The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against officials of the ICICI Bank and others for a loan of Rs 3,250 crore extended to the Videocon group. The group had secured Rs 40,000 crore loans from a consortium of banks, led by the SBI.

Dhoot and his Videocon group is being investigated for his bank loans turning NPAs. The CBI is also investigating allegations of a quid pro quo as Chanda Kochhar was part of the panel that decided to extend huge credit to the Videocon group which has been found as an investor in Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables.

The ICICI Bank has denied charges of a quid pro quo against Chanda Kochhar in extending a line of credit to the Videocon’s Dhoot. In a statement released earlier, the bank had clarified that the ICICI Bank was part of a consortium of banks and its share of Rs 3,250 crore loan to the company was ‘less than 10% of the total consortium facility’ extended to the group in 2012.