Videocon loan case: I-T department issues notice to Deepak Kochhar, NuPower Renewables

The Income Tax department had sent notices to Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank, and his company NuPower Renewables, in the Videocon loan case.

The I-T department had issued the notices to Kochhar under section 131 of the I-T Act, which reads power regarding discovery, production, and evidence. Kochhar had been asked to provide details of his personal finances, business transactions with his firm NuPower Renewables, and his last few years’ Income Tax Returns.

I-T officials had said in a statement that the department had ordered a probe into the finances of the company and those associated with it. Some more notices had been sent to the people associated with the firm and further action will be taken based on their replies, the officials added.

Deepak Kochhar had been named in a preliminary enquiry and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be questioning him soon, added the officials in the statement.

The CBI had already questioned some people related to the ICICI bank as a part of preliminary enquiry to find out if any other matter was involved in the bank issuing a Rs 3,250 crore loan to the Videocon Group in 2012.

The reports, once leaked, questioned a possible alleged link of the Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot with NuPower Renewables and its chairperson Deepak Kochhar.

Also Read| Videocon loan issue: ICICI Bank Chairman defends CEO Chanda Kochhar

The CBI enquiry had named many unidentified people, along with Kochhar and Dhoot, the officials added. The ICICI bank board came out in favour of its CEO Chanda Kochhar last week and said that it had full faith and confidence in her, lashing out at the reports of credit disbursement to Videocon Group against her as ‘malicious and unfounded rumours.’

“The board had also reviewed the banks internal processes for credit approval and found them robust,” the bank had said in a statement, adding that the bank’s current exposure is a part of syndicated consortium arrangement.

“ICICI Bank was not the lead bank for this consortium and the bank only sanctioned its share of facilities aggregating approximately Rs 3,250 crore which was less than 10 per cent of the total consortium facility in April 2012,” it added.

The bank had clarified that none of the investors of NuPower Renewables are current borrowers of ICICI Bank.