New Delhi: Though the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested former ICICI Bank CEO-MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon Group MD V.N. Dhoot in connection with a loan fraud case, its action has also raised questions as to why it took the agency nearly five years to make arrests in the matter.
The CBI had filed an FIR in the matter on January 22, 2019 while preliminary enquiry (PE) was initiated on December 8, 2017.
Initially, the PE took two years to reach a conclusion that a loan fraud of Rs 3,250 crore was made. Two years after the PE, the CBI finally deemeed it fit to lodge an FIR against the accused persons. However, no action was taken after that.
Sources in the CBI said that the agency sleuths were busy collecting all the necessary documents which could be used as evidence before making any arrest in the matter.
“Chanda Kochhar is a big name, so we didn’t want a weak case before her arrest. It was only after we had crucial evidence that we decided to make arrests in the case,” the sources said.
According to the sources, Arvind Gupta, one of the investors in Videocon Group, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narender Modi on March 15, 2016. Gupta had alleged that the way ICICI Bank was sanctioning loans was suspicious.
He had written that there were possibilities of breach of trust in the Rs 3,250 crore loan allotted to Videocon Group. He had also said that Deepak Kochhar had business dealings with V.N. Dhoot and hence there were possibilities of malpractices.
It was alleged that Rs 2,810 crore out of the Rs 3250 crore loan has not been repaid.
Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and V.N. Dhoot are presently in CBI custody. While the Kochhars were arrested on Friday, Dhoot was apprehended by the CBI on Monday.
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