Bombay High Court orders release of Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar from judicial custody in ICICI-Videocon loan case

The Bombay High Court on Monday ordered interim release of former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar from judicial custody after arrest by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Videocon loan case..A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and PK Chavan held that the arrest was in violation of Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which mandates sending notice for appearance before the concerned police officer."Accordingly, in the facts, we hold that the petitioners’ arrest is not in accordance with law. Thus, non-compliance of the mandate of Section 41(1)(b)(ii), Section 41-A and Section 60-A of Cr.P.C will enure to the benefit of the petitioners, warranting their release on bail" the Court directed.They are to be released subject to furnishing provisional cash bail of ₹1 lakh each..Chanda along with her husband Deepak Kochhar was arrested by CBI on December 24 on allegations of cheating and irregularities in loan of ₹3,250 crore granted in 2012 to the Videocon Group.The complainant had alleged that Kochhar's husband and her family members benefited from the dealings.It was alleged that when Kochhar was at the helm of affairs at ICICI Bank, she cleared a loan for Videocon Group of Companies. As quid pro quo, her husband's company Nu Renewable allegedly received investment from Videocon.The loan later turned into a NPA and was termed as bank fraud.After initial CBI custody, the special CBI court had remanded them to judicial custody on December 29..Senior Advocate Amit Desai along with advocate Kushal Mor, appearing for Chanda, had argued that she was arrested without complying with Section 46(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure as there had been no presence of a female police officer during her arrest. They also submitted that in the connected money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had made a statement before the Supreme Court that they did not require Chanda’s custody in the case. The former CEO had, thereafter, also co-operated with the ED, which recorded 14 statements under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the counsel submitted.They also pointed out to the court how Chanda had co-operated with every summons issued to her by CBI which proved there was no non co-operation from her end. .Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, appearing for Deepak, had informed the Court that Deepak was granted bail in PMLA case in March 2021. Thereafter, even those proceedings had been stayed by the trial court. He had been co-operating with the investigation too..Senior Advocate Raja Thakare, appearing for CBI, had vehemently denied any violation of statutory or constitutional provisions during arrest of the Kochhars. He had submitted that the agency's arrest was to get clarity and sequentially explain all related transactions through confrontation of the accused..[Read order]