Chanda Kochhar, ICICI Bank Ex-CEO, Is Arrested Six Years After First Complaint

Former ICICI Bank Ltd. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation late on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the couple were being questioned by CBI officers in Delhi as part of the Videocon Industries Ltd. fraud case, a person with direct knowledge of the development told BQ Prime on the condition of anonymity.

While the case was originally registered in Mumbai, the central agency will decide whether it should produce both Chanda and Deepak Kochhar in Delhi court or not, the person quoted above said.

Kochhar's arrest comes over four years after she stepped down as CEO of ICICI Bank after allegations of quid pro quo emerged against her. The case was linked to certain high-value loans extended by the bank to Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot's other companies.

In whistleblower complaints, it was alleged that NuPower Renewables, a company owned by Kochhar's husband, had engaged in a series of transactions with Dhoot's Videocon Group between 2008 and 2013. While the complaints had originally emerged in 2016, they came up again in 2018 after The Indian Express newspaper covered it in detail.

There was widespread furor over Kochhar's conduct in the matter after the story.

While the bank's board in March 2018 had placed "full faith" in Kochhar, the same board later initiated an independent enquiry in to the matter a few months later. A panel led by Justice BN Srikrishna had found Kochhar in violation of the bank's code of conduct.

Following the panel's findings, the bank's board announced that they were now terminating Kochhar's services, instead of accepting her decision to retire early. The board also ordered to claw back all bonuses paid to Kochhar between April 2009 and March 2018. While Kochhar had tried to challenge this in court, it was dismissed.

Kochhar's is one of the few high profile banker arrests by an investigative agency in recent years.

The CBI and Enforcement Directorate have both registered cases against Yes Bank founder and Former MD & CEO Rana Kapoor since March 2020, who continues to remain in jail.

Pratip Chaudhuri, former chairman, State Bank of India was also arrested last year in a separate case by the Rajasthan police but he received bail a few days later.

Deepak Kochhar was previously arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering matter.