Two loan sanctioned by Chanda Kochhar when she was at the top of ICICI Bank are under the consideration of probe agency- Enforcement Directorate (ED). The two loans amounts to ₹369 crore were given by Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables Ltd (NRL) from VN Dhoot’s Videocon Group and Nishant Kanodia’s Firstland Holdings.
Chanda Kochhar, who was once at the helm of ICICI bank is being accused of accepting kickbacks in lieu of sanctioning loans in favor companies which invested into Deepak Kochhar (her husband) led NuPower Renewables Ltd.
The central probing agency has been meticulously examining two loan sanctions and related transaction, one of which pertains to NuPower Renewables Ltd (NRL). As per some people familiar to the transactions, a day after a term loan of ₹300 crore was sanctioned, ₹64 crore was transferred by Dhoot (head of Videocon Group) to NRL through his other company Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL).
The second instance pertains to a similar kind of transaction between NRL and Kanodia’s Firstland Holdings. In this case, Essar Group companies gets loan sanctioned from ICICI bank between 2010-2012, during the same time Firstland Holdings which invested ₹324 crore in Deepak Kochhar’s company NRl, gets ₹163 crore from Essar Group. Both of these transactions allude to internal collusion between Chanda kochhar, Deepak Kochhar and the other two involved companies.
“These two instances are clear cut cases of kickbacks received for the loan sanctioned to group companies. On September 7, 2009 RTL (rupee term loan) of ₹300 crore was transferred to Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and the very next day, Dhoot transferred ₹64 crore to NRL, managed by Deepak Kochhar. As also in the case of Firstland Holdings, these loans were then laundered and brought back into the system through a maze of complex web of transactions.
Our probe is now concentrating on the trail and how it was ultimately used by the Kochhar couple to purchase personal assets,” said a person having close knowledge of the ongoing graft case and related development.
Earlier in February, lookout notices were issued by CBI for Chanda Kochhar and her husband regarding the graft scandal.