Ex-ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar was paid Rs 64 crore bribe to greenlight Videocon loan: Tribunal

An appellate tribunal in New Delhi has found Chanda Kochhar, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ICICI bank guilty of accepting a bribe of Rs 64 core in order to greenlight a Rs 300-crore loan for the Videocon group, as per a report by Times of India.

After the loan was approved, a sum of Rs 64 crore was sent to NRPL, a company which was managed by her husband, Deepak Kochhar.

The anatomy of the quid pro quo

The case revolves around a clear sequence of events. A loan of Rs 300 crore was sanctioned by a committee of which Chanda Kochhar was a part. The day after the loan was disbursed by ICICI Bank, a sum of Rs 64 crore was transferred from Videocon's entity, SEPL, to NuPower Renewables Ltd (NRPL), a company managed and controlled by Deepak Kochhar, Chanda Kochhar's husband.

The tribunal's order gives credence to the evidence presented by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which includes statements under Section 50 of the PMLA Act. These statements indicated that while Videocon's CMD, V N Dhoot, was the owner of NRPL on paper, the entire control of the company lay with Deepak Kochhar. The tribunal noted that the sanctioning of the loan itself was against the rules and policies of the bank.

Tribunal overturns lower authority's decision

This recent order by the appellate tribunal is significant as it overturns a November 2020 decision by a lower adjudicating authority that had ordered the release of the Kochhars' attached assets, valued at Rs 78 crore. The appellate tribunal criticised the lower authority for having "ignored the material facts while drawing the conclusions."

The CBI's allegations against the Kochhars and others involved the sanctioning of credit facilities in violation of banking regulations and policies.

In addition to the Kochhars, the CBI had also arrested Venugopal Dhoot, the founder of the Videocon group, in the same case. The high court granted him bail in January 2023.

The CBI's case revolves around allegations of financial impropriety, with claims that ICICI Bank extended significant credit to Videocon Group companies, violating banking regulations and engaging in corrupt practices.

The agency has alleged that the ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to these companies in violation of norms.

It further claimed that as a part of quid pro quo, Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) and transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route between 2010 and 2012.

With PTI inputs