Bombay High Court grants bail to Chanda Kochhar, husband Deepak in Videocon loan fraud case

“Accordingly the petitioners’ arrest not in accordance with law and not in compliance with Section 41 A of the Criminal Procedure Code,” a division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan said.

While CBI opposed release on cash bail, the bench rejected it.

A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan on Friday had reserved its order on the plea by the two seeking interim release from custody

The Kochhars were arrested on December 23, 2022, and Dhoot three days later in connection with the Videocon loan case. While Chanda Kochhar is lodged in Byculla women’s jail, Deepak Kochhar and Dhoot are lodged in the Arthur Road jail.

On December 29, a special court sent Kochhars and Dhoot in judicial custody till January 10 after CBI did not seek their further custody for interrogation

ICICI Bank and Chanda have been under regulatory scrutiny after The Indian Express first reported on March 29, 2018, that Dhoot provided crores of rupees to a firm he had set up with Deepak and two relatives, six months after his company got a Rs 3250-crore loan from ICICI Bank in 2012. CBI lodged its FIR in the case in 2019.

Kochhars’ lawyer had said the arrest was carried out after four years and was in violation of Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which mandates the investigating officer to issue a notice of appearance before an arrest is made.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, representing Chanda Kochhar, said she has cooperated with the CBI probe throughout and no inquiry took place for over three years until the first half of 2022. Desai added while the prosecution had made a statement in a money-laundering case registered by Enforcement Directorate (ED), which was conducting a parallel in-depth probe even during Covid-19-pandemic, that they did not require her custody, Chanda had been ” arbitrarily” arrested in the CBI case. “We have this agency (ED), which it is said nowadays that the citizens are fearful of, did not think they needed to arrest the petitioner, CBI felt the need to do so,” he added.

Desai pointed out that no woman police officer was present at the time of Chanda Kochhar’s arrest. He said she was arrested at 4: 30 pm, prior to sunset and as per procedure to arrest a woman, a woman police officer was required to be present for the arrest, which was not the case. Desai said his client did not understand for what reasons they were arrested ahead of the wedding of her only son.

He added Deepak Kochhar was an independent businessman and Chanda Kochhar had not shared anything related to the bank’s affairs with him. Desai, along with senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari for Deepak Kochhar, submitted the arrest memo did mention sufficient grounds and the same was against law. Chaudhari added Deepak Kochhar was granted bail by the high court in the ED case and proceedings before the trial court were stayed.

In response, senior advocate Raja Thakare for CBI submitted that Kochhars were remanded for eight days and no further remand was sought by the agency. He also said that the accused, who are in judicial custody, could have filed an application seeking regular bail instead of the plea in the high court.

Thakare said the ‘case diary’ has recorded all the reasons for the grounds for the arrest and the same was perused by the trial court judge while granting remand and the arrest memo need not mention all the grounds. He also submitted that non-cooperation by the accused would certainly affect the proper investigation and therefore their custodial interrogation was necessary.

He added Chanda Kochhar had never claimed she was touched by a male police officer while she was being arrested. “In white-collar crimes, criminals are not taken by hand. It was an arrest cum search. It is fallacious to contend that no woman constable was present. Full compliance of legal and procedural safeguards was done by the CBI,” he said, seeking dismissal of the pleas.