The CBI had faced severe criticism for the way it probed former ICICI CEO, Chanda Kochhar’s case. Politicians like Arun Jaitley, have termed the inquiry “investigative adventurism”. The ICICI bank has also accepted Chanda Kochhar as an offender, based on Justice B.N. Srikrishna committee’s report. The case was handed to the committee, chaired by the retired Justice in June 2018.
The committee stated that the former CEO, violated the code of conduct and internal banking policies, and also did not maintain the integrity in disclosing the annual disclosure report, which violates banking policies as well as Indian laws.
Chanda Kochhar has been booked by the CBI, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, on the charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, Quid Pro Quo/ nepotism/conflict of interest, involving loan irregularities worth Rs 3,250 crore, along with her husband Deepak Kochhar, who is the CEO of Nupower Renewables, and Venugopal Dhoot, who is the Managing Director of the Videocon Group.
According to the CBI, six loans totaling Rs 1,875 crore were sanctioned by ICICI to various Videocon companies, ever since Kochhar took charge. Also, a sum of Rs 64 Crores was transferred to Nupower Renewables, by Venugopal Dhoot, making it a case of Quid Pro Quo. A major amount of approximately Rs 1,730 Crore, was declared Non Performing Assets (NPAs).
Now, that the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has also completed its probe against Chanda Kochhar, with alleged non-compliance norms in lending loans to the Videocon Group and Nupower Renewables, the bank has come hard on Chanda Kochhar by cancelling her bonuses, which she had earned between 2009 and 2018, and all the medical and other facilities enjoyed by her.
It also said that her resignation, given on 4 October, 2018, will be considered as “dismissed on grounds of mistakes”. Now that the financial crime has been established against Padma Bhushan awardee, Chanda Kochhar, the CBI has actually proved its investigative seriousness.