NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected former ICICI Bank CEO and managing director Chanda Kochhar's appeal against a Bombay high court order last year dismissing her plea against being removed as the bank's chief.
The top court refused to interfere with the order which dismissed the petition filed by Kochhar challenging her termination in connection with ICICI-Videocon case.
“Sorry, we are not inclined to interfere with the high court order,” a bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.
“This falls within the realm of private bank and employee,” the apex court added.
Earlier in March, the Bombay HC had dismissed Kochhar's petition challenging the validity of her January 2019 termination for cause, terming it as "not maintainable".
The former ICICI Bank chief has been accused of “illegal sanctioning loans” worth Rs 1,875 crore to Videocon group of companies. It was the CBI which filed an FIR against the former ICICI Bank CEO and her husband on January 22, 2019.
In September, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested her husband Deepak Kochhar after it filed a criminal case of money laundering after studying an FIR registered by the CBI against the Kochhars, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others.
The central probe agency slapped money laundering charges against the Kochhars and their business entities for "illegal sanctioning of loans amounting to Rs 1,875 crore to the Videocon Group of companies".
The ED had earlier said an amount of Rs 64 crore, out of the Rs 300 crore loan sanctioned by a committee headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics Ltd, was transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) by Videocon Industries Ltd on September 8, 2009, just a day after disbursement of the loan by ICICI Bank.
NRPL was earlier known as Nupower Renewables Ltd (NRL) and is a company of Deepak Kochhar.
The agency had alleged that the "net revenue of Rs 10.65 crore was generated by NRL from these tainted funds".
(With agency inputs)
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SC rejects Chanda Kochhar's appeal against sacking from ICICI Bank