By Andrei Skvarsky.
India’s top crime detection agency made three arrests late in December in connection with an alleged fraud scheme of over a decade ago in which ICICI Bank, one of the country’s biggest lenders, made loans that ran against its rules and ultimately caused it to suffer heavy losses.
One of those arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was Chanda Kochhar, who was the CEO of the Mumbai-headquartered bank during the scandal and was one of the ICICI executives who approved the loans, Indian news service NDTV said.
The loans were extended between 2009 and 2012, according to various sources. They were put at a total of 32.5bn rupees (worth about $650m in those days).
The borrower was Indian electronics conglomerate Videocon Group, according to NDTV.
Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI) said the loans were declared non-performing assets in 2012, inflicting losses of 17.3bn ($320m) on ICICI, which, according to various sources, is India’s second- or third- largest bank.
Kochhar, whom the CBI accuses of criminal conspiracy and cheating, stepped down as CEO in October 2018. NDTV cited ICICI as saying a year later that she had violated its code of conduct and internal policies and that the bank would consider her resignation an end to the whole story.
Chanda Kochhar’s husband, businessman Deepak Kochhar, was also arrested, NDTV said.
According to ANI, the third detainee was Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot.
NDTV cited the CBI as claiming that Dhoot invested tens of millions of rupees in NuPower Renewables, a company founded by Deepak Kochhar, months after Videocon received the loans.
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