Mumbai: The CBI custody of former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot who were arrested in a loan fraud case was extended till December 29 by a special CBI court on Wednesday. While the Kochhars were arrested last Friday, Dhoot was arrested on Monday.
The trio was produced before special judge S M Menjoge at the end of their earlier remand on Wednesday. The CBI, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, sought their custody for another two days for further probe into the case following which the court extended the custody of Kochhars and Dhoot till December 29.
Kochhars and Dhoot were named as accused in the CBI FIR registered in 2019 under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI alleged that ICICI Bank had sanctioned credit facilities to companies of the Videocon Group in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines, and credit policy of the bank.
A sanctioning committee headed by Chanda Kochhar in 2009 approved a term loan of Rs 300 crore to VIEL in contravention of the rules and policies of the bank by abusing her official position as a public servant, the central probe agency alleged. Dhoot transferred Rs 64 crore to NRL from VIEL through SEPL the very next day.
