NEW DELHI: After being grilled by the Enforcement Directorate for about eight hours on Monday, former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar appeared before the agency on Tuesday too in connection with the money laundering case registered against them.
“There were many queries to be answered, so the questioning required more time. Today also we have recorded their statement,” an ED official said, adding that this time, they were more “open and cooperative”.
Both Chanda Kochhar and her husband arrived at the Enforcement Directorate’s headquarters on time at 11.30 am and finished recording their statement, which was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the investigating officer of the case, they said.
“The broad line of questioning concerned the involvement of some other family members, transfer of money from personal accounts and the personal involvement of the couple in Videocon group as well as the total declaration of assets. We had already asked them to give all the details of their assets, deposits and shareholding with any company in India and abroad,” the official added, refusing to divulge any further details.
The Kochhars were supposed to depose before the agency early this month, but they had then sought an extension which was allowed, they said. The two have been questioned earlier too in Mumbai in March.
Chanda Kochhar’s brother-in-law and Deepak’s brother, Rajiv Kochhar, has also been grilled by the ED multiple times in the case. Rajiv is the founder of Singapore-based Avista Advisory and was questioned by the CBI too about his company’s role in the restructuring of the loans in question, sources said.
The ED had registered a criminal case under the PMLA early this year against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot and others to probe alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in sanctioning `1,875-crore loans by ICICI Bank to the Videocon group. This ED action was based on an FIR registered by the CBI.