SCOOP: "There's a possibility of leakage," reveal CBI sources on transfer of officer who filed FIR against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot in ICICI-Videocon loan matter

The CBI sources have revealed to Republic that the agency is probing the role of Investigative Officer Sudhanshu Dhar Mishra in the ICICI-Videocon case against former ICICI Bank MD-CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and CEO of Videocon Group Venugopal Dhoot

According to sources, the superintendent of police who was in the agency's Banking and Security Fraud Cell and also registered an FIR against the three, is suspected to have leaked information of searches that were being carried out in the case. 

The CBI sources told Republic that, "there is a possibility of leakage"

A discreet probe was allegedly being carried out by the agency. A day after an FIR was registered in the ICICI-Videocon loan matter, the CBI officer probing the case was transferred on Thursday.

READ| ICICI-Videocon loan: CBI Investigator Who Filed FIR Against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar & Venugopal Dhoot Transferred

Months after a preliminary inquiry into the matter, the CBI on Wednesday had registered an FIR in connection with alleged irregularities in the Rs 3,250 crore ICICI Bank-led consortium loan to the Videocon group and was carrying out searches on Thursday at three locations in Mumbai and one location in Aurangabad. The search operation started Thursday morning and also covered offices of NuPower, a company operated by Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar.

The preliminary enquiry had been 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 ICIC Bank due to the controversy. She was succeeded by Sandeep Bakhshi. 

The FIR had also sought a probe into the role of other (named) prominent bankers in connection with the case.

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