Dhoot and Kochhar in cahoots in the multi-crore scam
A special court opined that the Former ICICI Bank MD and CEO, Chanda Kochhar prima facie had misused her official standing in the company by providing loans to Videocon Industries Ltd, for her own personal gratification.
While taking cognizance of these allegations filed by the Enforcement Directorate Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were summoned by the court.
The Special Judge issued proceedings against all the accused in this multi-crore scam for the offenses committed under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
It was observed by the court that Mrs. Chanda Kochhar had obtained an illegal gain by granting this loan to the other accused through her husband who has siphoned money under the name of various companies.
These loans were found to be in contravention to the rules and policies of the bank and were later written off as non-performing assets.
This not only caused a wrongful loss to the bank but also caused a wrongful gain to the borrowers as a result a total of Rs. 1,730 crores were misappropriated according to the allegations.
The investigation revealed that the initial loan amount transferred to Videocon, managed by V.N. Dhoot, was immediately transferred to a company managed by Mr. Deepak Kochhar through his company SEPL India Ltd.
It was brought to the notice of the investigation committee that Mr. V.N. Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar we the first Directors of SEPL India Ltd.
Most of the shares of a company named NRPL, owned and operated by V.N. Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar were transferred to SEPL, however, the said shares were further sold to Pinnacle Energy, managed by Deepak Kochhar.
Despite this close association, Mrs. Chanda Kochhar failed to mention this fact to the loan sanctioning committee.
The court held that there is enough material to proceed against the accused persons for offenses under Section 3 r/w Section 70 punishable under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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