Supreme Court Issues Notice On CBI's Challenge To HC Order Declaring Arrest Of Chanda Kochhar, Husband Illegal

The Supreme Court today issued notice on a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against grant of bail to ex-ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband (Deepak Kochhar) in the ICICI Bank-Videocon Loan Fraud case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar passed the order upon hearing Additional Solicitor General SV Raju (for CBI), who raised objections to the High Court order, insofar as it also declared the Kochhars' arrest "illegal" calling it an "abuse of power".

In response to court queries, the ASG informed that Chanda Kochhar remained on interim bail for a long time and spent only about 2 weeks in custody. He also apprised that the chargesheet in the case has been filed.

"You have a point as far as Section 41 CrPC is concerned, the language is not that stringent. But then, there are judgments of this Court which show that you have to justify the arrest", said Justice Khanna to the ASG.

In reply, the ASG submitted, "the arrest was justified...the High court says that there was no sufficient...".

Issuing notice, the bench tagged the matter alongwith the special leave petition filed by CBI seeking cancellation of bail granted to co-accused Venugopal Nandlal Dhoot.

It may be noted that the couple was arrested by the CBI on December 23, 2022, just a couple of weeks before their son's wedding and over three years after an FIR was registered against them in the case.

Background

The CBI began investigating the Kochhars in January 2018 after reports that Videocon's Venugopal 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 crores to five firms of the Videocon Group between June 2009 and October 2011. As per the agency, the loans were granted in contravention of the rules and policy of sanctioning committee.

It is alleged that 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 total misappropriation was to the tune of Rs.1,730 crores as of April 26, 2012.

Reportedly, after the FIR was registered in 2019, Deepak Kochhar was summoned over eight times and submitted nearly 2500 pages of evidence. Chanda Kochhar, on the other hand, was summoned and arrested in 2022.

The duo was booked under Sections 120B/420 of IPC and Sections 7, 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. They approached the High Court vide two separate petitions seeking quashing of the CBI's FIR and remand orders, as well as praying for interim relief of release.

Later, the Kochhars dropped the prayer seeking quashing of the FIR as the CBI had already filed the chargesheet. They were released by an interim order in January, 2023 after a coordinate bench of the High Court held that their arrest was prima facie not in accordance with section 41A and section 41(1)(b)(ii) of the CrPC.

Thereafter, on February 2, a Division Bench of the High Court declared their arrest illegal. “Such routine arrest without application of mind and due regard to the law amounts to an abuse of power and does not satisfy the requirement of Section 41A(3) CrPC", it said.

Case Title: CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Versus CHANDA KOCHHAR AND ANR., Diary No. 24077-2024