Lok Ranjan, govt's nominee on ICICI Bank board, transferred

Senior bureaucrat Lok Ranjan, who is the central government's nominee on the board of ICICI Bank, has been transferred to the Personnel Ministry.

His transfer comes a month after he was appointed on the board of the bank whose Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar is facing allegations of conflict of interest in sanctioning of the loan to Videocon group.

Ranjan, a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Tripura cadre, is at present joint secretary in the Department of Financial Services.

He has been appointed as joint secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training, according to an official order issued yesterday, without citing further details.

Ranjan was appointed the government's nominee of the bank, effective April 5, 2018, according to the ICICI Bank's website.

The bureaucrat had on Monday skipped board meeting of the ICICI Bank.

The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Videocon founder Venugopal Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar, and unidentified others.

The probe agency had questioned a few ICICI Bank officials as part of its enquiry to find out if any quid pro quo was involved in the bank issuing a Rs 3,250 crore loan to the Videocon group in 2012.

The CBI had last month questioned Rajeev Kochhar, Chanda Kochhar's brother-in-law in connection with its enquiry.