The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Deepak Kochhar, the husband of former ICICI Bank Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar, in the multi-crore ICICI Bank-Videocon money laundering case, Bar and Bench reported.
Deepak Kochhar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges in September.
On March 12, a court in Mumbai had also granted bail to Videocon Group Chairperson Venugopal Dhoot, who is a co-accused in the multi-crore case. Meanwhile, Chanda Kochhar got bail in the matter on February 12.
The Enforcement Directorate had filed a criminal case against them in 2019. The investigation agency has also been probing at least two other instances of loans by ICICI Bank during Kochhar’s term. One of them was given to Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firm Sterling Biotech and another to Bhushan Steel Group.
Kochhar was sacked in January 2019, about six months after she resigned from her position. Questions were raised about a Rs 3,250-crore loan that the bank had given the Videocon group in 2012. Six months after the loan was sanctioned, Dhoot allegedly provided crores of rupees to NuPower, a firm controlled by Deepak Kochhar.
In March 2020, Bombay High Court had dismissed Kochhar’s plea challenging her sacking. She later approached the Supreme Court, but failed to get any relief.
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