Videocon loan case: Chanda Kochhar moves Bombay High Court challenging ICICI bank's sanction to prosecute

Former Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the sanction granted by the bank's Board to prosecute her in the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan case..The petition filed through Rashmikant & Partners contended that the bank did not follow proper procedure while granting the sanction.Advocate Kuldeep Patil, the counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), sought time to file a reply to the petition.Accordingly, a division bench of Justices PD Naik and NR Borkar granted time to file a reply and posted the matter for hearing on January 5, 2024..In her petition, Kochhar noted that the ICICI Bank board had adopted a resolution on April 22, 2023, to grant sanction to prosecute her. This was informed by the CBI to a special court in June 2023.Kochhar’s lawyer alleged that the bank did not follow proper procedure to grant this sanction and that the bank had not suffered any loss..The case concerns the grant of a ₹3,250 crore loan given by ICICI to the Videocon Group in 2012 when the bank was helmed by Kochhar. The CBI has alleged that there was cheating and irregularities involved in the grant of this loan.As per the CBI, Kochhar had cleared the loan to the Videocon Group of companies because her husband and family stood to benefit from such dealings. As quid pro quo, her husband's company Nu Renewable allegedly received investment from Videocon.The loan later turned into a non-performing asset (NPA) and was termed as bank fraud..Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were arrested by the CBI in the case in December 2022. On January 9, the High Court ordered Kochhar and her husband's release on interim bail, holding that their arrest did not satisfy the provisions of law under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The CBI filed a chargesheet against them in July 2023.