MUMBAI: A special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai has granted bail to former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar on Friday, in connection with the ICICI Bank-Videocon money laundering case. The PMLA Court granted bail to Kochhar on a bond of Rs 5 lakh and has asked her not to leave the country without the permission of the court.
On 30 January, taking the cognisance of Enforcement Directorate’s investigation complaint, Special Judge A.A. Nandgoankar summoned all the accused. Chanda Kochhar who was asked to be present infront of court appeared before the special Judge Nandgoankar; her husband, co-accused in the multi-crore scam, appeared via video-conferencing, whereas founder of Videocon Industries Ltd, Venugopal Dhoot, didn’t appear on Friday. After her appearance, Chanda Kochhar filed a bail application through her lawyer Vijay Agarwal. The case has now been adjourned till 12 March.
The ED had registered the money laundering case following an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the Kochhar couple, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others. The court observed that former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar had prima facie misused her official position in granting loans to accused Videocon group of companies and received illegal gratification, through her husband Deepak Kochhar.