Chanda Kochhar moves Bombay High Court to curb SFIO questioning beyond office hours

Former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar has moved a plea urging the Bombay High Court to direct the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to conduct questioning only during office hours..She has asked the Court to direct the SFIO to limit its interrogations to regular working hours, citing concerns over the timing and length of questioning in the investigation into the Videocon-ICICI loan fraud case in which she is an accused.During yesterday's hearing of the matter, Kochhar’s lawyer, Senior Advocate Amit Desai, pointed out that the summons issued to her on November 5 for interrogation on November 22 was only received on November 14, after office hours. He argued that, like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the SFIO should be required to limit questioning to reasonable hours.In this regard, Desai referred to a recent ED internal circular that mandates questioning under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to be conducted during office hours. The circular was issued after the High Court voiced concerns about the impact of late-night interrogations on an individual’s right to rest.The Court has adjourned the matter till November 27, giving the SFIO time to decide whether to issue a similar directive for office-hour interrogations. In the meanwhile, the SFIO’s counsel has assured the Court that no coercive action would be taken against Kochhar and confirmed that the questioning on November 22 would take place only during office hours..Notably, Chanda Kocchar's husband, Deepak Kochhar also filed a similar plea in October before the High Court, after he was interrogated for nearly 12 hours in the Videocon case.On October 25, the Bombay High Court granted him interim relief by instructing the SFIO to limit future questioning to office hours.Both Deepak and Chanda Kochhar are presently being investigated by the SFIO in the Videocon-ICICI loan fraud case. The case involves a ₹3,200 crore loan issued by ICICI Bank to the Videocon Group during Chanda Kochhar’s tenure. Both the Kochhars have been repeatedly summoned as part of the ongoing probe.