ICICI Bank-Videocon case: Deepak Kochhar remanded to ED custody till 19 Sept

New Delhi: Deepak Kochhar, husband of former ICICI Bank MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar, on Tuesday has been remanded to Enforcement Directorate custody for further questioning till 19 September by Special PMLA court in Mumbai.

A team of ED officials were today seen escorting Deepak Kochhar from the ED office in Mumbai to a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court.

ED officials arrested him yesterday in connection with ICICI Bank-Videocon case.

The case pertains to the alleged misappropriation cited in loans given by ICICI Bank to Videocon. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been investigating Deepak Kochhar, head of the company NuPower Renewables and his wife Chanda Kochhar on suspicion of cheating, criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

Officials had said Deepak Kochhar was placed under arrest as the agency wants to put him under custodial interrogation to obtain more details about some fresh evidence gathered in this case, that was filed under the criminal sections of the anti-money laundering law in January last year, PTI reported.

The agency had provisionally attached movable and immovable assets consisting of flat, land, seized cash, plant and machinery, located in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, totalling ₹78.15 crore in possession of Chanda Kochhar, her husband and the companies owned or controlled by him.

The assets were attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in ICICI Bank loan case. ED initiated an investigation after registering a case under PMLA on the basis of FIR for illegal sanctioning of loans amounting to ₹1,875 crore to Videocon Group of companies.

"The investigation revealed that ₹64 crore, out of the loan of ₹300 crore sanctioned by a committee headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics Limited, was transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL, earlier known as NuPower Renewables Limited, a company of Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar) by VIL on September 8, 2009, just one day after disbursement of loan by ICICI Bank," the ED had said earlier.

"Further, net revenue of ₹10.65 crore was generated by NRL from these tainted funds. Therefore, proceeds of crime amounting to ₹74.65 crore were transferred to/generated in NRPL," it had said.

The accusations led to Chanda Kochhar, who had been one of India's few senior women bankers, resigning her position at ICICI Bank almost two years ago.