Trouble For Chanda Kochhar , ED Attaches Assets Worth Rs 78 Crore In Money Laundering Case

File Picture

Assets worth Rs 78 crore have been attached by the ED in connection with a money laundering probe against former ICICI Bank Chairman Chanda Kochhar and others, officials said .

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and others in a case of alleged irregularities and money laundering in giving loans by the bank to the Videocon group

provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued for attachment of the properties that includes Kochhar’s Mumbai-based house and some other assets belonging to a company linked to her, they said.

The book value of the attached assets is Rs 78 crore, they said.

The ED registered a criminal case under the PMLA last year against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others to probe alleged irregularities and corrupt practices in sanctioning Rs 1,875-crore of loans by ICICI Bank to the corporate group.

This action of the agency was based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The CBI has named all the three and Dhoot’s companies Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and Videocon Industries Limited (VIL) in its case.

The anti-corruption probe agency also named Supreme Energy, a company founded by Dhoot, and NuPower Renewables, a company controlled by Deepak Kochhar, in the FIR.

The CBI alleged that Dhoot had invested in Nupower through his firm Supreme Energy in a quid pro quo to loans cleared by ICICI Bank after Chanda Kochhar took over as the bank’s CEO on May 1, 2009.