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The Bombay High Court, on Monday, granted bail to former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in the Videocon Industries loan fraud case filed by the CBI, saying that the arrest was illegal.
“The reason given in the arrest memos to arrest the petitioners appears to us, to be casual, mechanical and perfunctory, clearly without application of mind,” the High Court bench said, setting the bail price at ₹1 lakh cash.
Kochhar and her husband, along with Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot, were arrested by the CBI last month for allegedly fraudulent loans given to six Videocon Group companies by ICICI Bank while Kochhar was at the helm. Dhoot had co-founded a separate company, NuPower Renewables, with Deepak Kochhar.
After their arrest on December 23, the Kochhars moved the Bombay High Court on December 27 seeking interim release from custody on the ground that no sanction had been obtained prior to their arrest. However, the court rejected an urgent hearing and on December 29, a special court sent the Kochhars and Dhoot to judicial custody till January 10.
On Monday, Kochhars’ lawyer argued that the arrest was made four years after the case came to light, and was in violation of Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which requires a notice to be issued by the investigating officer before an arrest can be made. Further, no woman police officer was present at the time of Kochhar’s arrest.
The advocate on behalf of CBI argued that Kochhars were remanded for eight days and no further remand had been sought. Further, the accused, who are in judicial custody, should have appealed for a regular bail instead of filing the plea in the high court, they said.
In the petition that sought to quash the FIR filed against them, the Kochhars also argued that there was no need for their arrest as they have been co-operating with the CBI from the time the preliminary enquiry was registered in December 2017.
“Admittedly, during the period, 2019 till June 2022 neither any summons was issued to the petitioners nor any communication was established by the respondent No.1– CBI with them,” the bench said, adding that the reason for arrest after four years has not been spelt out.
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