A Mumbai court has granted former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar bail, on a bond of Rs 5 lakhs, for an alleged money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate in February 2019. Based on a complaint by the CBI, the case alleges corruption, involving Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group's Venugopal Dhoot, in the sanctioning of Rs 1,875 crores in loans by ICICI bank between June 2009 and October 2011. The loans were declared non-performing assets in 2012, causing the bank a loss of allegedly 1730 crores.
The ED alleged that a day after a loan of 300 crores was sanctioned to Videocon Group from ICICI under Chanda Kochhar, 64 crores was transferred to Deepak Kochhar-owned Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd from Videocon, a day after disbursement of loans.
The ED is also probing the loans sanctioned by ICICI to Gujarat based Sterling Biotech and Bhushan steel group under her tenure. Months after she stepped down, Kochhar was sacked in 2019. The couple has denied all charges.