Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank. File
| Photo Credit: SHASHI ASHIWAL
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dominated the arrest of ICICI Bank’s former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar, and her husband Deepak Kochhar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) within the Videocon mortgage case as unlawful. Justice Anuja Prabhudessai and Justice N.R. Borkar confirmed to grant the couple interim bail on January 9, 2023.
Giving the decision, the Bench rejected CBI’s arrest causes memo in December 2023 that non-cooperation and non-disclosure of true info of the case. “Article 20(3) is an essential safeguard in criminal cases and is meant to be a vital safeguard against torture, and other coercive methods used by investigating agencies. Hence, merely because an accused does not confess, it cannot be said that the accused have not cooperated with the investigation,” the judges stated saying the decision.
Also Read | Explained | What is the Videocon-Chanda Kochhar case all about?
The couple was arrested by CBI for alleged irregularities in a mortgage of ₹3,250 crore granted to the Videocon Group within the 12 months 2012. The CBI’s costs claimed that the previous Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot allegedly invested crores of rupees in NuPower Renewables, an organization based by Deepak Kochhar, months after the ICICI Bank mortgage was granted to the Videocon group.
In January 2023, the couple was launched by an interim order after a coordinate bench held their arrest was prima facie not in accordance with part 41A and part 41(1)(b)(ii) of the CrPC.
