HUGE DEVELOPMENT: ICICI Bank inquiry finds Chanda Kochhar to be in violation of its conflict of interest norms and Indian laws

In a huge development in the Videocon-ICICI loan issue, ICICI Bank has issued a statement revealing that the committee it had appointed to inquire into the matter has found the company's former MD-CEO Chanda Kochhar to be in violation of the bank's code of conduct in terms of dealing with conflict of interest and fiduciary duties, as well as in violation of applicable Indian laws, rules and regulations. 

Here is the statement by ICICI Bank releasing the findings of the committee headed by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna:

The statement by ICICI, which had at first leapt to the defence of Chanda Kochhar, comes days after she, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group chief Venugopal Dhoot were named as the accused, along with four companies, in a FIR filed in the case by the CBI.

According to the CBI, the accused allegedly sanctioned certain loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with other accused to cheat ICICI Bank. The CBI has conducted searches at three places in Mumbai and one place in Aurangabad. The searches were carried out at the offices of Videocon and NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd.

The preliminary enquiry was initiated after shareholder Arvind Gupta had alleged that Kochhar influenced a Rs 3,250-crore loan to the Videocon group, run by Venugopal Dhoot, in 2012 in return for a deal concerning NuPower Renewables and Supreme Energy, a clean-energy firm run by her husband Deepak Kochhar. It is alleged that Dhoot has given Rs 64 crore in 2010 to a firm promoted by Deepak Kochhar and two of his relatives. In October, Chanda Kochhar had to step down as MD-CEO of ICICI Bank due to the controversy. She was succeeded by Sandeep Bakhshi.

In April 2018, two I-T notices had been sent, to NuPower Renewables and Deepak Kochhar. In the same month, Deepak Kochhar's brother Rajiv Kochhar was detained by immigration authorities at Mumbai airport before he was to take a flight abroad and was handed over to the CBI. Lookout notices were also issued against Chanda and Deepak Kochhar at all airports in the country.