New Delhi: The CBI officer who was investigating the ICICI Bank-Videocon case was reportedly transferred a day after the agency registered an FIR against the bank’s former MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group’s VN Dhoot for alleged cheating and corruption.
According to a report in The Indian Express, SP Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra who was with the Banking and Securities Fraud Cell of the CBI in Delhi, was transferred to the agency’s Economic Offences Branch in Jharkhand a day after signing the FIR on January 22.
The Kochhars and Venugopal Dhoot were booked on Thursday for alleged cheating and corruption in clearing six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore to the Videocon group during Chanda Kochhar’s tenure at the helm of ICICI. Dhoot’s companies Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and Videocon Industries Limited (VIL), a company, Supreme Energy, founded by him and a company controlled by Deepak Kochhar, Nupower Renewables have also been made accused in the FIR.
The agency has levelled Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act on all the accused.
Two days after the FIR was registered, Union minister Arun Jaitley had written a scathing blog post, lashing out at the CBI for "adventurism" and asking it to concentrate on the bull's eye. Jaitley, who is recuperating after a surgery in a hospital in the US, on Twitter said one of the reasons for "poor" conviction rate in India is that "adventurism and megalomania" overtakes investigators and professionalism takes a back seat.
It is alleged that Dhoot had invested in Deepak Kochhar's company Nupower through his firm Supreme Energy a quid pro quo to loans cleared by the ICICI Bank after Chanda Kochhar took over as the CEO of the bank on May 1, 2009.
The ownership of Nupower and Supreme Energy changed hands through a complex web of shared transactions between Deepak Kochhar and Dhoot, it alleged.
The CBI probe into the matter began nearly 13 months ago in the form of a preliminary enquiry, which it registered on a complaint that Dhoot had allegedly paid Rs 64 crore to Deepak Kochhar in the form of investment in his company Nupower in return for loans worth Rs 3,250 crore cleared by Chanda Kochhar.
A preliminary enquiry is the first step before registering a regular case during which the agency pinpoints formal allegations which could be included in the FIR.
During the preliminary enquiry, the CBI found six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore were sanctioned to the Videocon group and companies associated with it between June, 2009 and October, 2011 in alleged violation of laid-down policies of the ICICI bank, which have now become part of the probe.
The loans were declared non-performing assets in 2012 causing a loss of Rs 1,730 crore to the bank, it alleged.
The CBI wants to investigate role of some top names in Indian banking industry in connection with clearing these loans, the FIR states.
Present CEO of ICICI bank Sandeep Bakshi, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Sonjoy Chatterjee, CEO Standard Chartered Bank Zarin Daruwala, Managing Director & CEO Tata Capital Rajiv Sabharwal, Chairman, New Development Bank K V Kamath and Senior Advisor Tata Capital Homi Khusrokhan were part of committees which cleared the loans and need to be investigated, it said.
In two cases, Chanda Kochhar was one of the members of the sanctioning committee — Rs 300 crore to Videocon International Electronics VIEL on August 26, 2009 and Rs 750 crore to VIL on October 31, 2011, it said.
The CBI has alleged Rs 300 crore loan was disbursed on September 7, 2009 and the next day Dhoot transferred Rs 64 crore to Nupower Renewables Ltd, through Supreme Energy founded by him.
"This was the first major capital received by NRL to acquire first power plant. Thus Chanda Kochhar got illegal gratification through her husband from VIL and V N Dhoot for sanctioning a loan of Rs 300 crore to VIEL," it alleged.
The amount was transferred through a "circuitous route" using company Supreme Energy Limited the ownership was also changed hands to a trust run by Deepak Kochhar, the CBI alleged.
In addition to loans to VIL and VIEL, four other loans were issued to Millenium Appliances, Sky Appliances, Techno Electronics and Applicomp India to repay the unsecured loan availed by these companies from VIL, the FIR alleged.
The loans were to repay the unsecured loan availed by these companies from VIL and a loan was also sanctioned to VIL for refinancing the existing loans of the company, which was against the credit policy of the bank during the relevant period.
The FIR has alleged that these loans have turned NPA resulting in wrongful loss to the ICICI Bank and wrongful gain to the borrowers and accused persons.
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