Enough material to proceed against Kochhars: PMLA court

A special PMLA court here has held that the material submitted by the Enforcement Directorate is sufficient to proceed with a trial for money laundering against former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and others.

On January 30, the special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act had summoned Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and other accused after taking cognizance of the ED's charge sheet.

In the order that was made available on Wednesday, judge A A Nandgoankar said, "After going through the submissions, written complaints and statements recorded under PMLA, it appears that Chanda Kochhar had misused her official position in granting loan to accused Dhoot and/or Videocon group companies.

"And (it appears) she got illegal gratification/undue advantage through her husband... through various companies for siphoning off money and proceeds of crime," the judge said.

The material produced by the ED constitutes the commission of offence, and it is "sufficient to proceed against the accused persons," the court said.

All the accused have been asked to appear before the court on February 12.

The ED arrested Deepak Kochhar in September 2020 after it filed a criminal case for money laundering based on an FIR registered by the CBI against the Kochhars, Dhoot and others.

The ED alleged that ₹64 crore out of a loan amount of ₹300 crore sanctioned by a committee of ICICI Bank headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics Limited was transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) by Videocon Industries on September 8, 2009, a day after the disbursement of loan.

NRPL was earlier known as Nupower Renewables Limited (NRL) and is owned by Deepak Kochhar, the ED said.