PMLA adjudicatory body doesn’t confirm attachment by ED of Deepak Kochhar’s flat in Mumbai

MUMBAI: The PMLA adjudicatory authority has dismissed an application filed by ED seeking attachment of residential flat belonging to the Kochhar’s and various wind power assets belonging to Nupower Renewables Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiaries. The authority on November 6 rejected a plea by the Enforcement Directorate to confirm its provisional attachment of the properties including a flat held in the name of Deepak Kochhar at CCI building in Mumbai.
“The flat is not involved in money laundering,” said the 800-page order. ED had also provisionally attached cash of Rs 10.5 Lakhs. The attachment has not been confirmed by the authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA) under which Deepak Kochhar, husband of former CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar, was arrested.
Last January the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), New Delhi registered a case for offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Kochhar and his wife among others for allegedly causing loss to ICICI bank by sanctioning loans to Videocon Group in contravention of bank’s rules and policies.
The authority in its order said the FIR “fails to justify any investigation having been done before alleging the wrongful loss in respect of the RTL of Rs. 300 crores from ICICI Bank to M/s VIEL. The said RTL loan account of Rs 300 crore is shown by D-1 (Chanda Kochhar) to be not declared NPA.”