In connection with the suspected cash laundering case involving both ICICI Bank and Videocon, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Videocon Chief Executive Officer Venugopal Dhoot on Monday. The CEO is under investigation in Mumbai. Later on in the day, the CBI would present him in front of a Mumbai Special CBI court. The investigation team will ask for his incarceration.
Chanda Kochhar, the former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband, Deepak Kochhar, have already been held by the agency in connection with the investigation. The CBI had charged 61-year-old Chanda Kochhar with irregularities, violating banking laws, and breaking the law when she approved a number of loans to businessman Venugopal N. Dhoot’s Videocon Group between 2009 and 2011 while she was in charge of the bank.
The Kochhar couple and Dhoot have been charges in 2019 with violation of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Prevention of Corruption Act, along with the names of the following corporations: Videocon International Electronics Ltd., Videocon Industries Ltd., NuPower Renewables Pvt. Ltd & also Supreme Energy Pvt. Ltd.
In a deal just after the Videocon Group received a loan of Rs 3,250 crore from ICICI Bank in 2012, the CBI claimed that Dhoot allegedly transferred Rs 64 crore to NuPower Renewables, where Deepak Kochhar had a 50% stake, raising concerns and ethical issues given that Chanda must have set the credit limits for the Videocon Group companies.
According to the CBI report:
Under Chanda Kochhar, the ICICI Bank approved loans to the Videocon Group and other parties in a flagrant violation of the bank’s guidelines. When all these loans were later proves to be non-performing assets (NPAs), the bank suffered losses, while the accused and borrowers made illegal profits.
The CBI also sought to look into the actions of other top ICICI Bank executives who allegedly followed Chanda’s orders to issue loans to the Videocon Group as well as other companies. The loan payments to the Videocon Group companies and other borrowers eventually became non-performing assets (NPAs) by 2017. According to the Central bureau of investigation, the majority of these loans identify as “frauds” after the investigation because there were flagrant violations of the law, banking regulations, and bank policies.
A co-accused person allegedly assisted Deepak Kochhar, the husband of former CEO of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar, in acquiring ownership of NuPower Renewables Ltd (NRL) and in generating revenue that was illegal, according to the investigating agency.
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