Mumbai, April 6: A lookout notice has been issued against ICICI Bank's CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon chief Venugopal Dhoot in connection to the case of Videocon Group being given a loan of Rs 3250 crore in a dubious manner. According to a report in The Indian Express, in the year 2008, the head of the Videocon Group Venugopal Dhoot had formed a company along with the husband of ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar. The company was then given a loan of Rs 64 crores through an owned entity and then the company was transferred in the name of a trust headed by Deepak Kochhar for Rs 9 lakh only. This raised conflict of interest and propriety issues. Further, whistleblower Arvind Gupta, who had written a blog on the Videocon loan issue in the year 2016 claimed that ICICI Bank had granted loans worth Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon Industries because of the relations between ICICI Bank's CEO Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group's chief Venugopal Dhoot. The loans later became bad loans as Videocon group could not return the loan amount.

On Thursday evening, the CBI had questioned Chanda Kochhar's brother-in-law Rajiv Kochhar regarding the loan case. There were reports earlier that Rajiv Kochhar had been detained but the CBI later clarified that it was not a arrest but an interrogation. But now, a lookout notice has been issued against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kocchar and Videocon Group chief Venugopal Dhoot:

The lookout notice is an internal circular issued in which an investigating agency has the right to obtain information in any way possible and it includes giving the investigating agency the power to arrest or restrict the person under investigation. Whistleblower Arvind Gupta on Wednesday had said that the entire board of ICICI Bank should be investigated in the case. ICICI Bank Chairman M K Sharma had recently confirmed that Chanda Kochhar, CEO and Managing Director of ICICI Bank, had made the necessary disclosures. The CBI had questioned a few ICICI bank officials as part of a preliminary enquiry to find out if any quid pro quo was involved in the bank issuing a Rs 3,250 crore loan to the Videocon Group in 2012. The loan had recently made news after reports questioned it and linked it to a possible quid pro quo and conflict of interest that Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot allegedly had with NuPower Renewables, a company founded by Deepak Kochchar. According to experts, the lookout notice in this case is a precautionary measure by the government to save itself from further embarrassment as few high-profile businessmen turned fraudsters flew the country before the law could take its course. Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi being the most prominent names in that list. (With Agency Inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 06, 2018 07:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).