The co-accused in the ICICI bank money laundering case, Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot, was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday.
Dhoot was taken into custody in Mumbai. A few days ago, the CBI also questioned him. The CBI detained Chanda and Deepak Kochhar on December 23. The pair is expected to be in CBI custody till today (December 26).
A co-accused person allegedly assisted Deepak Kochhar, the husband of former ICICI Bank CEO-MD Chanda Kochhar, in obtaining ownership of Nupower Renewables Ltd (NRL) and in collecting money that was obtained illegally.
In March 2018, the CBI opened a preliminary investigation (PE) against Deepak Kochhar and Dhoot to look into suspected irregularities in the Rs 40,000 crore loan that a group of lenders made to the Videocon Group.
A complaint had been filed by the agency against Chanda, her husband, Venugopal Dhoot, and their respective enterprises, NuPower Renewables, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd., and Videocon Industries Limited.
The CBI discovered during its first investigation that between June 2009 and October 2011, six loans totaling Rs 1,875 crore were approved for the Videocon Group and businesses connected to it, allegedly in contravention of ICICI Bank’s established norms.
According to the CBI, the loans were classified as non-performing assets in 2012, which resulted in a loss for the bank of Rs 1,730 crore.
The agency detained Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar on Friday in connection with the suspected ICICI Bank-Videocon money laundering case. Chanda Kochhar was the former managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the ICICI bank.
