Credit given to Videocon cost ICICI Bank Rs 1,000 crore in losses

 Credit given to Videocon cost ICICI Bank Rs 1,000 crore in losses

The charge sheet presented by the CBI towards the bank's prior chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon collapse Venugopal Dhoot names the following defendants: Supreme Energy, Nupower Renewables (NRL) controlled by Deepak Kochhar, Videocon International Electronics Ltd., and the financing facilities approved by the ICICI Bank on behalf of the Videocon group turned into a list of NPAs of more than Rs 1,000 crore.

The approximately 10,000 page charge sheet for the Central Bureau of Information cases in this country was recently submitted to a special court. Currently, the Kochhars and Dhoot are free on bail. 

Six "Rupee Term Loans" (RTLs) were approved for the Videocon Group on May 1, 2009, after Chanda Kochhar was appointed MD and CEO of ICICI Bank. 

The charge sheet stated that the bank authorised RTLs of Rs 1,875 crore for the group between June 2009 and October 2011. The two-person Committee of Directors headed by Chanda Kochhar approved RTL of Rs 300 crore for Videocon International Electronics Limited (VIEL) in August 2009. 

She also served on both the credit committee, which sanctioned the RTL of 750 crore rupees to Videocon Industries Limited (VIL) in October 2011, and the committee of top management, which made recommendations. 

Even after 2012, she continued to serve on the committees that approved different loan ceilings for the Videocon Group.

 The credit facilities provided by the ICICI Bank to the Videocon Group were classified as non-performing assets (NPAs) in June 2017 and had a balance of Rs. 1,033 crore. As a result, ICICI Bank was forced to bear a loss of Rs. 1,033 crore with interest thereon, according to the charge sheet.

The Kochhars, Dhoot, and various others "engineered a strategy and a plan in December 2008, after the public disclosure of Ms Chanda Kochhar's appointment as MD and CEO of the ICICI Bank, in order to get sanctioned financing to the Videocon Group," it was said. In Mumbai, Chanda Kochhar resided in a Videocon Group-owned apartment. Later, the property was given to her family trust for merely Rs. 11 lakh in October 2016 with Deepak Kochhar serving as managing trustee. According to the CBI, the property was actually worth Rs 5.25 crore.

According to the charge sheet, she took Rs 64 crore in "illegal gratification" and then used the bank's finances for her own benefit.

To collect illicit gratification of Rs 64 crore under the guise of investments (in firms owned by him), it was alleged that Deepak Kochhar colluded with others to induce ICICI Bank to issue credit facilities in favour of Videocon Group through his wife. 

The CBI also listed Deepak Kochhar's Nupower Renewables (NRL), Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd., and Videocon Industries Limited as additional defendants. In accordance with articles of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code that deal with criminal conspiracy, the First Information Report in this case was filed in 2019.