Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation has issued lookout circulars (LOCs) against former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon managing director Venugopal Dhoot, embroiled in the quid pro quo case.
According to a newspaper report, lookout circulars were issued against the Kochhar couple and Dhoot as a measure of precaution to prevent a repetition of high-profile exits like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. “LOCs were filed after the FIR and are mandatory in cases where such economic offences are alleged. In recent times, keeping an eye on travel plans is a top concern for regulators,” the report quoted a CBI official as saying.
A lookout circular is mostly used at immigration checks at international borders such as airports to check if a traveller is wanted by the police.
“After CBI filed its preliminary inquiry last year, lookout circulars against Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot were issued for all airports, which have been revived now,” the official said. This is the first time an LOC has been issued against Chanda Kochhar.
The CBI move comes almost a month after it registered an FIR against the Kochhars, Dhoot and others in the Rs 3,250-crore loan case involving the ICICI Bank and Videocon Group. Reportedly, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is extending the probe to check for possible forex rules violations in the ICICI Bank corruption case.
The ED is looking to investigate assets the couple built and possessed, including their South Mumbai apartment. The report says the income tax officials have made a lot of progress into the case and this is a matter of interest for the ED. It is expected that the couple will be quizzed on their tax details by the ED. “The Kochhars had floated several companies to route the money. These companies had close transactions with various Videocon Group companies. We want the details from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to study the fund flow,” the official told The Economic Times.
Last month, soon after the CBI booked Chanda Kochhar in the ICICI Bank-Vodafone corruption case, an enquiry panel headed by former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna had found that she violated the lender's code of conduct and the framework for dealing with conflict of interest. This led ICICI Bank to treat Chanda Kochhar’s exit as "termination for cause" under the bank internal policies.
It is alleged that Videocon's Dhoot allegedly invested crores of rupees in Deepak Kochhar's Nupower, months after the Videocon group got Rs 3,250 crore as loan from the ICICI Bank in 2012. The agency had registered a preliminary enquiry against Dhoot, Deepak Kochhar and unidentified others in March last year.
(This story first appeared in The Week)
