Videocon loan: CBI to grill top bank officials

New Delhi: The CBI, which recently questioned Umanath Vaikunt Nayak — a director in the NuPower Renewables which was founded by the husband of ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar —will now start questioning the senior officials of the bank as part of its investigation into the Rs 3,250-crore loan to the Videocon group.

“The agency will now call senior officials of the ICICI bank for clarifications. They may be confronted with the officials of the Videocon gtroup during questiuoning”, sources said.

The CBI recently quizzed Nayak , a director in the NuPower Renewables, and Mahesh Chandra Punglia, considered a close aide of Videocon founder Venugopal Dhoot, in connection with the case.

The controversial deal recently made news after reports questioned the loan and linked it to a possible quid pro quo that Dhoot allegedly entered in to with the NuPower Renewables. The CBI has registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against Dhoot and  Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kocchar and unidentified others.

A PE is the first step by the CBI to gather information about the allegations. If the agency is convinced there exists prima facie material in the matter, it may register a regular case against the accused. The ICICI Bank board had come out in support of Chanda Kochhar, saying it had full faith and confidence in her and described certain reports against her regarding credit disbursement to the Videocon Group as “malicious and unfounded rumours”.

ICICI Bank chairman M.K. Sharma in an internal inquiry conducted two years ago had cleared CEO Chanda Kochhar of any wrongdoing in Videocon loan case.