Supreme Court to CBI: Why didn't you oppose bail to Chanda Kochhar, Deepak?

New Delhi, October 10

As former ICICI Bank CEO-cum-MD Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar, accused in a loan fraud case, remain on interim bail since January 9, the Supreme Court on Tuesday sought to know from the CBI why it did not oppose repeated extensions of the two-week interim bail granted by the Bombay High Court.

“This order is of January 9 and interim bail was granted for only two weeks. Why have you not resisted? Why are you permitting it to continue for such a long period?” a Bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who represented the CBI.

Noting that the probe agency’s plea had become infructuous as the impugned order granting interim bail was only for two weeks, the Bench said, “You (CBI) should have moved an objection there (in the Bombay High Court).” The Bench also included Justice Bela M Trivedi.

While hearing the CBI’s petition challenging the January 9 order of the High Court, the Bench was surprised to know that there was no fresh date assigned for hearing the matter in the High Court.

As Justice Trivedi said the CBI should have moved the High Court, the ASG said he would request his counterpart in Mumbai to approach the High Court.

Asking Raju to seek instructions on the future course of action, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on October 16.

The CBI arrested the Kochhars on December 23, 2022, in connection with the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan fraud case. The agency had also arrested Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in the case.

ICICI Bank had sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to the companies of the Videocon group in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI’s guidelines and the credit policy of the top private lender, the CBI alleged.