At last, more than two years after PGurus’ exposé, former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar on Monday was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for taking bribes when his wife was allotting loans to Videocon Group. PGurus on March 25, 2018 had exposed how agencies were hushing up the detailed complaint on how Deepak’s company got Rs.325 crores as kickback when wife, ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar had allotted Rs.3900 crores. After PGurus exposé, many media houses picked up the complaint filed by an investor forum activist Arvind Gupta in March 2016. The complaint was addressed to the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, to all agencies in the country on the frauds in the ICICI Bank during Chanda Kochhar’s tenure[1].
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED met all kinds of roadblocks to proceed against Chanda Kochhar and her husband. CBI’s First Information Report (FIR) in January 2019 mentioned the role of ICICI Bank’ former CEO K V Kamath and said clearly that all the high-value loans were disbursed only after the approval of the Kamath-led committee. The then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley openly blamed CBI for probing top bankers of the country[2].
Chanda Kochhar had already confessed to the agencies that all the loans she disbursed were with the approval of K V Kamath, who has not been called by the agencies.
In January 2020, the ED attached properties of Chanda Kochhar and husband valued at Rs.78 crores. The actual market value of the properties is Rs.600 crores[3].
The ICICI Bank is involved in bank loan fraud in the NDTV case also. Chanda Kochhar had already confessed to the agencies that all the loans she disbursed were with the approval of K V Kamath, who has not been called by the agencies. PGurus has reported in detail on the role of powerful people in saving K V Kamath from the ICICI Bank’s high-value loan fraud case[4].
References:
[1] ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar and husband on the radar of probe agencies for doubtful loans to debt-ridden Videocon Group? Mar 25, 2018, PGurus.com
[2] Why is Jaitley throwing tantrums at CBI for fixing Chanda Kochhar and other ICICI Bank officers? Jan 26, 2019, PGurus.com
[3] ED attaches Rs 600 crores assets of ex-ICICI Bank Chairman Chanda Kochhar and her bribe receiver husband and his companies – Jan 11, 2020, PGurus.com
[4] Who is planting news on ICICI Banker K V Kamath to be the next Finance Minister? Jun 1, 2020, PGurus.com
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Arun Jaitly was Modi’s closest buddy. And Arun Jaitly, from his hospital bed in the US, cried that CBI is overreaching itself by investigating Chanda Kochar – Crony hey toh Mumkin hey…
Good at last one arrest happened. Kamat should be questioned.
Modi does not have the courage to prosecute Kamath – since Kamath is sitting on the shoulders of Mukesh Ambani;
Yes, Mukesh Ambani is the real boss.
During NDA-1 Govt, it was PC-Jaitley-jugal bandi. Now its totally Mukesh Ambani.
Congrats to the PGurus team on this expose. Honest and truthful reporting wins and am glad to see this news headline. Hopefully all guilty from all parties go down with this investigation whoever they are.