Chanda Kochhar didn’t disclose ties with Videocon: ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in an appeal filed before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) tribunal last week, sought to establish that ICICI Bank’s former managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar had close links with the Videocon Group that she did not disclose to the bank.

The agency is investigating Kochhar’s role in sanctioning loans to Videocon in return for the latter’s promoter, Venugopal Dhoot, investing in her husband’s companies. The case, based on a whistleblower complaint, was responsible for Kocchar’s exit from the bank.

ED’s latest disclosure came when it challenged the November 6 order of its own Adjudicating Authority (AA) under PMLA, Tushar V Shah, who dismissed the attachment of properties worth Rs 78 crore belonging to Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar. While asserting that ED had failed to establish these as the proceeds of crime, Shah termed the investment of ₹64 crore in Deepak Kochhar’s Nupower Renewables Ltd (NRL) by Venugopal Dhoot’s SEPL (Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd) as a business transaction.