No summon issued in ICICI Bank case so far, say CBI sources

No summon has been issued so far in connection with the ICICI Bank case, sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Monday.

Sources said the documents in connection with the ICICI Bank case are being scrutinised and the summons will follow after the scrutiny of the documents is over. However, the court warrant for searches was issued from a Mumbai court.

On January 27, a CBI officer, part of a probe into the ICICI Bank loan case, was transferred, with the top officials claiming that he was suspected of leaking information to the accused.

CBI on January 24 booked former CEO and MD of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar, her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon MD Venugopal Dhoot and a few others for criminal conspiracy in an alleged loan fraud case.

 

The case has been under investigation for more than a year now and the FIR was also registered only when the senior officials inquired about it, sources in the central investigating agency said.

The preliminary enquiry (PE) was conducted earlier in the case and thereafter was converted into a regular case (RC). On January 22, a case was registered.

It was, however, suspected that there were possibilities of information about searches being leaked. Therefore, a discreet inquiry was conducted and the role was SP and Investigation Officer (IO) Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra was strongly suspected.

Chanda Kochhar had quit the ICICI Bank on October 4 last year in the wake of allegations that she had favoured Videocon in the lending processes because the consumer electronics company's founders had invested in a company founded by her husband Deepak Kochhar.

The CBI filed cases against the three along with some others after conducting raids at four premises in Maharashtra, the investigating agency said.

The preliminary enquiry allegedly showed that from June 2009 to October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned six high-value loans to various Videocon Group companies, CBI sources said.

Chanda Kochhar had taken over the post of the Managing Director of the ICICI Bank on May 1, 2009.

The companies M/s Nupower Renewables Limited (NRL) and M/s Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL) have also been named in the case registered by the CBI.

It is alleged that SEPL was initially incorporated by Dhoot and his associate Vasant Kakade and the ownership of the company was later transferred to Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar by selling the shares of the company to Pinnacle Energy Trust (PET), owned by Kochhar.

It was further alleged that Venugopal Dhoot allegedly invested a large amount of funds in Deepak-owned Nupower months after Videocon Group got Rs 3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.

The preliminary enquiry conducted by the premier investigators alleged that offences were committed under Section 120-B read with Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 7 and Section 13 (2) read with 13 (1)(d) on the part of various companies of Videocon Group owned and promoted by Venugopal Dhoot, MD Videocon.