Bombay High Court Refuses Urgent Hearing To Former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar In Plea Against Arrest

Former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak have approached the Bombay High Court alleging illegal arrest by CBI in the case of alleged irregularities regarding loans granted to Venugopal Dhoot's Videocon Group.

While they sought urgent hearing of their petition for interim relief of release, the vacation bench of Justice Madhav J Jamdar and Justice S G Chapalgaonkar said there was no urgency and the petitioners can approach the regular court on January 2 and seek circulation of their plea.

It is the Kochhars' claim that their arrest was without prior sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). They have sought setting aside of the remand order.

The petition before the court questions the timing of the arrest as their son's wedding is scheduled in January itself.

Kochhars' only son is scheduled to be married on 15th January, 2023 and functions were to start shortly. This leads to the belief, that to be arrested on the eve of the wedding of her son, after 4 years of the FIR despite the settled law was actuated by malafides, the plea states.

Advocate Kushal Mor for the Kochhars mentioned the matter on Tuesday. He claimed the arrest was after four years in violation of Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) mandating issuance of notice.

The duo was arrested on Friday. Yesterday, a special court extended their remand, along with Dhoot's till December 28, 2023.

The CBI began investigating the couple in January 2018 after reports that Videocon's Dhoot paid a firm he had allegedly set up with Deepak and two relatives, six months after his firm got a Rs 3,250 crore loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.

The irregularities were with regard to the grant of six high-value loans worth around Rs 1,575 crore to five firms of the Videocon Group between June 2009 and October 2011. The loans were granted in contravention of the rules and policy of sanctioning committee, the agency has alleged.

These loans were later termed as non-performing assets resulting in wrongful loss to ICICI bank and wrongful gain to the borrowers and accused persons, the CBI said. The total misappropriation is to the tune of Rs.1,730 crore as of April 26, 2012.

After the FIR was registered in 2019, Deepak Kochhar was summoned over eight times and submitted nearly 2500 pages of evidence, according to the petition. Chanda Kochhar has said she was summoned for the first time earlier this year and was arrested soon after she was summoned for the second time.