A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar sought responses to the appeal filed by the agency.
In February this year, the Bombay High Court had upheld the interim bail granted to terminated ICICI bank chief, Chanda and her businessman husband Deepak.
It had said that the Central Bureau of Investigation‘s (CBI) arrest of the couple in an alleged loan fraud case was ‘routine, without application of mind and an abuse of power.’ It also opined that it was casual, mechanical and perfunctory.
In 2019, the CBI registered a case against the Kochhars, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and a bunch of companies alleging that the loan of Rs 1,875 crore sanctioned by ICICI bank to financially beleaguered Videocon between June 2009 to April 2012.
Following this, they were arrested in 2022 and were granted interim bail in January 2023 by the Bombay High Court. The agency’s chargesheet had asserted two instances of alleged ‘bribe’ including an investment of ₹64 crore by Dhoot in Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables Pvt. Ltd. (NRPL) through M/s. Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL), and to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Kochhar, through a circuitous route. It is also alleged that the flat at CCI Chambers owned by the Videocon Group was sold to the family trust of Deepak Kochhar for ₹11 lakhs, though the value of the flat was ₹5.25 crore.
