ICICI bank-Videocon case: ED searches office, residential premises of Chanda Kochhar, Venugopal Dhoot
MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted simultaneous searches at the premises of former ICICI Bank Managing Director Chanda Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Group in Mumbai and Aurangabad respectively.
The development comes weeks after the ED registered a criminal case against them for alleged money laundering. Kochhar is accused of sanctioning loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with other accused to cheat the ICICI Bank and probe is going on into alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in sanctioning of Rs 1,875 crore loan by the bank to the corporate group.
A preliminary enquiry (PE) in the case was instituted on March 31, 2018 and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR in the case after the inquiry, while the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act after in the case.
This is the first time that ED has raided Kochhar’s residence. In January the CBI had searched offices of Deepak Kochar’s Nupower Renewables and the Videocon offices in Mumbai and Aurangabad respectively.
According to sources familiar with the case, the ED is trying to find out the money trail. It is being speculated that the money had gone into Dhoot’s business interests in South America in the oil and natural gas sector and the ED is trying to ascertain where did the money go from there, the sources have said.
In January, Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee that probed the allegations against Kochhar found that she violated the bank’s code of conduct in dealing with conflict of interest and fiduciary duties in the case of loans to Videocon that had routed a part of the money to a company owned by her husband Deepak. On February 22, the CBI had issued lookout circulars (LOCs) against Kochhar, her husband Deepak and Dhoot.