ICICI-Videocon Loan Case: Special CBI Court Reserves Order On Rajiv Kochhar’s Plea Seeking Cancellation Of Look Out Circular

The Special CBI Court in New Delhi has reserved its order on former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar’s brother-in-law Rajiv Kochhar's plea seeking cancellation of a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against him in the ICICI-Videocon loan case, until June 7.

Earlier, he had moved the court on May 15 seeking cancellation of the LOC issued against him.

His counsel told the Special CBI Judge that he has co-operated with the investigation and will join the probe as and when summoned.

However, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) counsel stated that there is a risk of Rajiv Kochhar trying to flee from the law or the country and that he is still required for investigation.

So far, former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and her brother-in-law Rajiv Kochhar have already been interrogated by the ED as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Alleging that Rajiv Kochhar had withheld crucial information pertaining to the case, the ED had questioned him from April 30 to May 2.

It may be recalled that the case relates to alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in the sanction of a Rs 1,875 crore loan by ICICI Bank to the Videocon Group between 2009 and 2011.

Early this year, the ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Rajiv Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Videocon’s Venugopal Dhoot and others to probe the above mentioned alleged irregularities and corrupt practices.

On March 1, the ED had carried out searches at the premises of Pacific Capital Services Private Limited and Quality Techno Advisors Pvt Ltd. Both Rajiv Kochhar and Deepak Kochhar hold stakes in these two companies.

Prior to this development, both the companies had petitioned the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Appellate Tribunal, seeking release of documents which were allegedly seized by the ED on March 1.

In April this year, a Singapore-based whistleblower had alleged in a letter that Rajiv and Deepak used to take kickbacks from corporate promoters for loans sanctioned by the lender, which is ICICI Bank.

The whistleblower had written to the ED, the CBI and Singapore investigators alleging that Deepak Kochchar and Rajiv Kochchar ran multiple companies in Singapore, Cayman Islands as well as India and the primary activity of these firms was to take advisory fees on loans to be arranged by ICICI Bank, which used to be headed by its then CEO Chanda Kochchar.