ED arrests former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochar’s husband Deepak Kochhar

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Deepak Kochar, husband of former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochar, news agency ANI reported quoting ED officials. The arrest was made in connection with ICICI Bank-Videocon case.

Officials said Deepak Kochhar was arrested in Mumbai under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the agency is expected to produce him before a local court on Tuesday to seek his custody.

They said Deepak Kochhar was placed under arrest as the agency wants to put him under custodial interrogation to obtain more details about some fresh evidence gathered in this case, that was filed under the criminal sections of the anti-money laundering law in January last year.

The ED had filed its case after studying an FIR registered by the CBI against the couple, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others.

It slapped money laundering charges against the Kochhars and their business entities for “illegal sanctioning of loans amounting to Rs 1,875 crore to the Videocon Group of companies”.

The ED had earlier said an amount of Rs 64 crore, out of the loan amount of Rs 300 crore sanctioned by a committee headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics Limited, was transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) by Videocon Industries Limited on September 8, 2009, just a day after disbursement of the loan by ICICI Bank. NRPL was earlier known as NuPower Renewables Limited (NRL) and is a company of Deepak Kochhar.

Kochhar, who stepped down from ICICI Bank on October 4, 2018, defended herself before the ED in March 2019 saying the loans were given on merit and have no link with her husband’s business.