The Supreme Court has on Monday upheld the Bombay High Court decision to grant bail to Deepak Kochhar, the husband of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, in the ICICI Bank-Videocon scam case.
The Enforcement Directorate had moved the Supreme Court against the Bombay HC decision to grant bail to Deepak Kochhar on a bail surety of RS 3 lakh and the submission of his passport.
While keeping the issues of law open, the bench of Chief Justice of India Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli rejected the ED’s petition.
In an earlier hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had requested the court to bunch the ED’s challenge to the bail order along with the pending case of Kochhar’s challenging the validity of invoking the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against him.
Kochhar had contended that the PMLA appellate authority had dismissed the ED’s petition to confirm the attachment of the couple’s assets and thus exonerated him in a ruling in November 2020.
The ED had claimed these assets were raised from the proceeds of the crime. Kochhar’s counsel had submitted that among the 11 accused, only Deepak Kocchar had been arrested. Chanda Kocchar and Video group chairman VN Dhoot are out on bail.
Deepak Kochhar is an accused in the ICICI-Videocon money laundering case which involves crores of rupees. He is accused of violating the rules and policy of the committee for sanctioning the loan to his company.
It is also alleged that Chanda Kochhar, through her husband Deepak Kochhar’s company Supreme Energy Private Limited, misused her official position in giving loans worth almost Rs 1,600 crore to the Videocon Group companies between 2009 and 2011 and allegedly took bribes via her husband’s company or via other entities under that company. These loans were later declared non-performing assets causing loss to ICICI Bank.