When a defiant Chanda Kochhar walked out of an ICICI board meeting in huff
The ICICI Bank board sent CEO Chanda Kochhar on forced leave on Monday, but not without high drama that saw Kochhar adopting a belligerent stance. She did not accept the decision meekly and put up a show of resistance, according to a TOI report.
Kochhar has been sent on forced leave till the completion of an independent investigation into charges of conflict of interest against her in a case of her husband being a beneficiary of loans from the bank’s borrowers. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already registered a preliminary enquiry into allegations that the ICICI Bank chief 's husband Deepak Kochhar's company NuPower Renewables received an investment from a Videocon group company as a quid pro quo for a loan from the bank.
This was followed by a fresh allegation by a whistleblower Arvind Gupta that the bank favoured the Ruias of Essar for allegedly round-tripping investments into NuPower.
Citing sources, the TOI report said Kochhar questioned why she was being asked to go on leave as none of the regulators had asked for it. But when the chairman of the bank’s largest shareholder, LIC, insisted on the course of action, it was clear that Kochhar had little choice. While she continued to resist, all the independent directors of the bank are understood to have dug in their heels in the matter. Kochhar is understood to have left the room in a huff and had to be persuaded to return. The board subsequently drafted a statement that it was a collective decision to ask Kochhar to go on leave. However, she is believed to have insisted that she would not accept such a statement.
According to the TOI report, finally a consensus statement was drafted: “In line with the highest levels of governance and corporate standards, Chanda Kochhar has decided to go on leave till the completion of the enquiry as announced on May 30, 2018.”
Kochhar has been sent on forced leave till the completion of an independent investigation into charges of conflict of interest against her in a case of her husband being a beneficiary of loans from the bank’s borrowers. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already registered a preliminary enquiry into allegations that the ICICI Bank chief 's husband Deepak Kochhar's company NuPower Renewables received an investment from a Videocon group company as a quid pro quo for a loan from the bank.
This was followed by a fresh allegation by a whistleblower Arvind Gupta that the bank favoured the Ruias of Essar for allegedly round-tripping investments into NuPower.
Citing sources, the TOI report said Kochhar questioned why she was being asked to go on leave as none of the regulators had asked for it. But when the chairman of the bank’s largest shareholder, LIC, insisted on the course of action, it was clear that Kochhar had little choice. While she continued to resist, all the independent directors of the bank are understood to have dug in their heels in the matter. Kochhar is understood to have left the room in a huff and had to be persuaded to return. The board subsequently drafted a statement that it was a collective decision to ask Kochhar to go on leave. However, she is believed to have insisted that she would not accept such a statement.
According to the TOI report, finally a consensus statement was drafted: “In line with the highest levels of governance and corporate standards, Chanda Kochhar has decided to go on leave till the completion of the enquiry as announced on May 30, 2018.”
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