ED questions Chanda Kochhar’s for eight hours

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a second consecutive day on Tuesday questioned former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar for eight hours and asked them to join the investigation again on Wednesday in connection with the Rs 1,875-crore Videocon loan case.

The Kochhars arrived at the ED headquarters in south Delhi’s Khan Market area around 11 a.m. and were questioned till 7 p.m. They were told to bring some more documents.

The agency officials asked the Kochhars about their business dealings with Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot and also about the financial transactions that took place between them.

The case is related to the alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in the sanction of a Rs 1,875-crore loan disbursed by ICICI Bank to the Videocon Group during 2009 and 2011.

The ED got clues about an illegal transaction running into crores of rupees routed to NuPower, a company run by Deepak Kochhar.

The Kochhars were questioned on many occasions last month in Mumbai. This is their first appearance before the ED in Delhi.

In March, the ED had conducted searched the residence and office premises of Kochhars and also questioned them along with Dhoot.

Allegedly, Dhoot had invested in NuPower Renewables Ltd through his firm Supreme Energy as quid pro quo for loans cleared by the ICICI Bank under Chanda Kochhar.

Out of the Rs 40,000 crore loan to the Videocon group, Rs 3,250 crore was given by ICICI Bank and a large portion of the loan by ICICI was unpaid at the end of 2017.

The bank proceeded to declare the Rs 2,810 crore of unpaid loan as non-performing asset (NPA).

IANS