PMLA case: Kochhars, Dhoot told to appear in court on Feb 12

A special PMLA court in Mumbai onSaturday issued summons to former ICICI Bank managing directorChanda Kochhar and other accused after taking cognizance ofthe charge sheet filed against them by the EnforcementDirectorate in a money laundering case and asked them toappear before court on February 12.

The ED filed its first charge sheet against Kochhar,her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon Group promoterVenugopal Dhoot on money laundering charges in November.

Special PMLA Judge AA Nandgoankar took cognisance ofthe complaint filed by ED on Saturday and directed all theaccused to remain present before it on February 12.

The ED had filed a money laundering case against theKochhars, Dhoot and others for ''illegal sanctioning of loansamounting to Rs 1,875 crore to the Videocon Group ofcompanies''.

The ED had arrested Deepak Kochhar in September afterit filed a criminal case of money laundering based on an FIRregistered by the CBI against the Kochhars, Dhoot and others.

The ED has alleged that an amount of Rs 64 crore, outof the loan amount of Rs 300 crore sanctioned by a committeeheaded by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International ElectronicsLimited, was transferred to Nupower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL)by Videocon Industries Limited on September 8, 2009, a dayafter disbursement of loan by ICICI Bank.

NRPL was earlier known as Nupower Renewables Limited(NRL) and is Deepak Kochhar's company, as per the ED, whichhas also claimed that ''net revenue of Rs 10.65 crore wasgenerated by NRL from these tainted funds''.

Therefore, as per the ED, proceeds of crime amountingto Rs 74.65 crore were transferred to or generated in NRPL.

These are part of the first charge sheet filed by theagency in this case.

The CBI had booked Chanda Kochhar on charges ofcriminal conspiracy, cheating and abuse of official positionfor ''dishonestly sanctioning loans to the Videocon Group''.

As per CBI's FIR, she received ''illegal gratificationthrough her husband from Videocon MD VN Dhoot for sanctioninga term loan of Rs 300 crore to Videocon InternationalElectronics Ltd.'' PTI AVIBNM BNM