A SPECIAL court on Friday granted bail to former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar in connection with a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.
Kochhar appeared before the court following summons, and her lawyer Vijay Aggarwal filed a formal plea for bail. The ED had filed a prosecution complaint against her, her husband Deepak Kocchar, who is in judicial custody, and Videocon Group’s Venugopal Dhoot along with others.
The court granted Kochhar bail on a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and directed her to not leave the country without its prior permission. The court also directed her to surrender her passport to the ED and report to the agency as and when required for further investigation.
Last month, the court had issued summons against the accused after taking cognizance of the prosecution complaint filed by the ED. The court had said that based on the complaint, there was prima facie evidence of Kochhar having “misused her official position” to grant loan to Dhoot, the Videocon group companies. The court also said that there was evidence of Kochhar getting illegal gratification for siphoning money.
