Chanda Kochhar, husband move HC, call their arrest by CBI illegal

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday refused to grant Chanda Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar an urgent hearing of their petition, challenging their arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the loan fraud case.

The couple has alleged that the arrest was ‘illegal’ as it came around four years after an FIR was registered against them in connection with the alleged loan fraud which involved Venugopal Dhoot, MD of Videocon Group.

Advocate Kushal Mor, representing the Kochhars, told a vacation bench of justice Madhav Jamdar and justice S G Chapalgaonkar that as the family was gearing up for the wedding of their only son on January 15, the arrest smacked of mala fides and hence, the order granting their custody to the CBI should be quashed.

The petition also said that the couple was summoned on December 22, but at their request, the agency allowed them to appear on December 23. After they were questioned for 20 minutes, the agency arrested them without following proper procedure, it said.

Mor claimed that the agency did not follow the statutory mandate of the Code of Criminal Procedure for arresting women, as no woman officer was present at the time of her arrest. Besides, the Kochhars were arrested without prior sanction required under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the plea said and requested the court to set aside the FIR as well.

The vacation bench, however, told the couple that it was not inclined to intervene in the matter since there was no urgency and the petitioners could approach a regular bench on January 2.

Meanwhile, a special CBI court on Tuesday allowed the Kochhars and Dhoot to use mattresses and pillow, and eat home food while in the agency’s custody.

The couple on Monday alleged that they had been lodged in local police lock-up and were made to sleep on the floor. They urged the court to direct the CBI to provide them with mattresses since it was cold and they were senior citizens.

The Kochhars were arrested on December 23 in Delhi over alleged irregularities while providing loans to six firms of Videocon Group. Dhoot was arrested on Monday for allegedly paying bribes to the duo for getting loans.

Chanda Kochhar had stepped down in 2018 from the top post amid a probe. The Enforcement Directorate - which is also involved in the investigation - had said it was probing 24 loans aggregating ₹1,730 crore that it believed ICICI Bank extended “illegally and criminally” to the Videocon Group companies when she was at the helm of affairs. Kochhar’s husband was arrested by the ED in September 2020. He was granted bail in March 2021.