Special Court rejects Deepak Kochhar plea for default bail, to hear plea on merits next
MUMBAI: A special court hearing money laundering matters, rejected default bail plea made by Deepak Kochhar, husband of former CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar, a week after Enforcement Directorate submitted a first prosecution complaint (chargesheet) against him.
Kochhar, a management graduate from Harvard Business School says he has 35 years’ experience in the finance, oil and renewable energy sectors, is the sole arrested accused out of 11 in the case filed by the ED.
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.
Additional sessions Judge PP Rajvaidya heard Kochhar’s plea via video conferencing on Thursday where his counsel Vijay Aggarwal sought statutory bail on the grounds that the limitation for filing chargesheet was over and he was entitled to be released from custody.
But H S Venegaonkar special public prosecutor for ED opposed his plea.
