Loan fraud case: SC rejects CBI's request for Chanda Kochhar's husband to be granted temporary release

Loan fraud case: SC rejects CBI's request for Chanda Kochhar's husband to be granted temporary release

The Bombay High Court upheld its January 2023 temporary decision granted release to Chanda Kochhar and her husband, declaring their detention by the CBI to be "illegal" on February 6.

The CBI's appeal against the Bombay High Court's decision to grant temporary bail to former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar as well as her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar in a loan fraud case was heard by the Supreme Court on Monday.

The request was heard by a panel of Justices Bela M. Trivedi as well as Pankaj Mithal after Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the investigative agency, said that while the high court had rendered a decision in the main matter last week, it had not yet been posted. vanished.

The Bombay High Court upheld its January 2023 temporary decision granted release to Chanda Kochhar and her husband, declaring their detention by the CBI to be "illegal" on February 6.

The top court said that while it is rejecting the CBI petition, each party would be allowed to legally contest the high court's primary ruling.

The bench said, "We clarify to you that we have not expressed any viewpoint on the merits of the case."

On December 23, 2022, the CBI detained the couple in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank debt case.

He filed a motion to challenge his arrest and seek an unlawful declaration of it at the High Court right away. As a temporary remedy, he also requested release on bond.

In an interim ruling on January 9, 2023, the High Court granted him bail and severely chastised the CBI for executing the arrest in a "casual and mechanical" way without exercising due diligence.

In the supreme court, the CBI contested the temporary ruling.

The federal probe agency contended that the High Court acted incorrectly in ignoring IPC section 409, which deals with criminal breach of trust by public servants, and that the offense carried a maximum sentence of seven years, with the possibility of a sentence as high as life imprisonment.

When ICICI was a private bank, the top court had questioned the CBI over the use of section 409 of the IPC. The agency has said that the issue involves public funds even if the bank is private.

Subsequently, the top court chastised the investigative agency for failing to raise a protest against Kochhar's two-week interim release being repeatedly extended.

According to the CBI, the Videocon group of firms, which are pushed by Venugopal Dhoot, received credit worth Rs 3,250 crore from private sector lender ICICI Bank. This credit was granted in breach of the Reserve Bank of India's directives, the Banking Regulation Act, and the bank's credit policy.

In a FIR filed in 2019 under IPC provisions pertaining to criminal conspiracy, the CBI has charged Deepak Kochhar, Chanda Kochhar, and Dhoot, as well as Deepak Kochhar's management of NuPower Renewables (NRL), Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd, and Videocon Industries Ltd. was referred to as the Prevention of Corruption Act Provisions. Additionally, it was claimed that Dhoot invested Rs 64 crore in NuPower Renewables via Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) out of retaliation, and that SEPL was transferred to Deepak Kochhar's Pinnacle Energy Trust in 2010 using a deceptive means. moved to. additionally 2012.