NEW DELHI: Suspecting more skeletons to come out of the closet, the investigative agency is probing the role of “certain board members” of ICICI bank in the Videocon case and will extend the investigation to all the major loans sanctioned by her, which has become non performing asset (NPA).
“The roles of certain board members are also under suspicion. The investigation is going on and is trying to establish if they were aware of or party to that quid pro quo,” a senior investigative official who is familiar with the probe told TNIE.
According to the official, while Chanda Kochhar’s role is under question, certain board members were aware of the impropriety and they on their part chose not to disclose the information about the Videocon case to anyone.
"Also some board members had made purchase of large assets during that period. That angle is being probed," the official added.
Even market regulator SEBI has also raised eyebrows over the role of board members on non-disclosure of information in the Videocon case. On May 23, SEBI issued a notice to the bank and Kochhar, asking for their response on alleged non-compliance with disclosure norms. On June 25, that SEBI’s preliminary report had found conflict of interest.
“Probe is also for all the major loans sanctioned during that year which has turned NPA,” the official added.
In March, ICICI Bank Ltd received another complaint from a whistleblower alleging it inflated profits by delaying provisioning for 31 NPA accounts. The complaint accused top executives of wilfully breaching rules. The bank admitted to some delays in the classification in some of these accounts. The matter is already being probed by the RBI and it asked ICICI Bank to provide details such as the total exposure of these borrowers, if they were NPAs or not and provisioning amounts spent by the bank after the accounts became NPAs.
Now the investigative agencies are probing If these delays were done deliberately for “some favours”.