Big relief for Chanda Kochhar! Court grants bail to her and husband Deepak Kochhar in ICICI Bank-Videocon scam case

Mumbai: In a big relief to ex-ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar, the Bombay High Court on Monday granted them interim bail. The Kochhar couple was detained for 15 days after being arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Videocon loan case.

A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan ruled that their arrest flouted the CrPC Section 41A which mandates sending a notice for appearance before the concerned police official.

Accordingly, the court ordered the Kochhar couple`s release on a cash bail of Rs 1,00,000 each.

Arrested on December 24, the Mumbai Special CBI Court had initially granted the Kochhars CBI custody and later on December 29 remanded them to judicial custody. Soon afterwards, the Kochhars had challenged their arrest in the Bombay High Court which pronounced its verdict Monday.

The CBI had booked Chanda Kochhar, her husband and Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Group, along with companies Nupower Renewables, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in the FIR registered under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

It is alleged that Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot invested crores of rupees in Nupower months after the Videocon Group got Rs 3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012. It was alleged that the accused sanctioned certain loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with others to cheat ICICI Bank, the CBI had said in a statement after filing of the FIR in 2019.

With Agencies Inputs