ICICI-Videocon loan fraud: Venugopal Dhoot had warned Deepak Kochhar Chanda may end up 'sharing room' with Indrani Mukerjea

ICICI Bank-Videocon Group loan fraud case: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in its chargesheet that Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot had warned Deepak Kochhar, the husband of former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, that the banker would "land up sharing room with Indrani Mukerjea”. It further said that Deepak Kochhar was livid and asked Dhoot to listen to his advice otherwise he would "ruin him".

Kochhars and Dhoot, who were arrested in December 2022, are out on bail at present. Indrani Mukerjea is the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case and was lodged in Mumbai’s Byculla jail for over six years following her arrest in 2015. The Supreme Court granted bail to Indrani Mukerjea in May last year.

The CBI filed its chargesheet in the ICICI Bank-Videocon Group loan fraud case which ran into over 10,000 pages. Citing a witness, the CBI said that Dhoot and Deepak Kochhar entered into an argument about a flat at the CCI Chambers in Mumbai’s Churchgate area. According to the witness, Dhoot had told Deepak Kochhar that he paid Rs 5.38 crore to the State Bank of India Home Finance and released the title of the flat from a dispute, following which the flat belonged to him.

The witness also mentioned that Deepak Kochhar was incensed and told Dhoot to sell all the shares of Quality Appliance at a face value of Rs 11 lakh, transferring the flat to Kochhar’s family trust Quality Advisor. Deepak said that if Dhoot failed to do so, Chanda Kochhar would declare his loan accounts with the ICICI Bank as non-performing assets (NPAs), the CBI statement read. Hearing this, Dhoot told Deepak Kochhar to not transfer the flat in a manner that would land Chanda Kochhar in trouble.

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The Videocon Group founder also said during the argument that Chanda Kochhar would land up sharing room with Indrani Mukerjea. Kochhar then became angry and asked Dhoot to listen to his advice otherwise he would ruin him, the chargesheet noted.

The CBI had also claimed in its chargesheet that Chanda Kochhar resided in a flat owned by the Videocon Group in Mumbai. This flat was transferred to her family trust at merely Rs 11 lakh in October 2016 when the flat’s actual value was Rs 5.25 crore as of 1996. Chanda Kochhar, however, knew this was an inadequate consideration, as per the chargesheet.

Besides this, Chanda Kochhar has been accused of accepting ‘illegal gratification’ worth Rs 64 crore, due to which she allegedly misappropriated ICICI Bank’s funds for her own use. The Kochhars and Dhoot were arrested by the CBI in December last year in connection with the case. The Bombay High Court granted interim bail to the couple. The High Court also reprimanded the CBI for making the arrest in a “casual and mechanical” manner and without application of mind.

The CBI has named the Kochhars and Venugopal Dhoot, Nupower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd, and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in the FIR registered under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2019.

(With inputs from PTI)

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