Immigration stops Chanda Kochhar's brother-in-law from leaving country
What's the story
The investigation in the alleged Deepak Kochhar-Venugopal Dhoot fraud has now extended to the former's brother Rajiv Kochhar, who was stopped by Immigration at the Mumbai Airport while he was leaving India. He was then taken to the CBI's Bandra office for questioning in the alleged nexus between ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband and the Videocon chairman. CBI suspects Rajiv too was involved.
Allegations
What is the alleged scam about?
In 2010, Venugopal allegedly lent Rs. 64cr to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd, which he set up with Deepak and two others. However, he transferred the company's proprietorship to a trust owned by Deepak for Rs. 9L, just six months after he got Rs. 3,250cr loan from ICICI Bank as part of a Rs. 40,000cr loan he sourced from about 20 banks.
Rajiv
What's Rajiv's role in the scam?
The CBI suspects fraudulent dealings between Rajiv's Singapore-based company Avista Advisory, an 'independent boutique integrated financial services company,' with ICICI Bank. There was no lookout circular against him, but he was intercepted on the basis of 'specific information.' Rajiv has denied the allegations. "As a rule, we don't work with each other," he had said, so there was no question of favoritism and conflict.
Quote
ICICI Bank's statement on the matter
"We would like to categorically state that ICICI Bank has never engaged Avista Advisory Group for any services at all. Hence, the allegation of conflict of interest, as reported by a section of media, is totally baseless and mala fide in intent," ICICI bank said.
Status
CBI has questioned some ICICI officials, Deepak-Chanda might be summoned
Last month, the CBI had ordered a preliminary inquiry into the alleged scam. They have already questioned few ICICI employees on the matter. They are also studying documents of the suspicious transactions. If any wrongdoing is found, Chanda Kochhar might be summoned for questioning, officials said. Sources said Deepak, the prime accused, is also likely to be summoned soon.