The Bombay High Court in an interim order on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to release former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar, observing that their arrest was not in accordance with the mandate of Section 41A of CrPC.
The directions were issued by the Division Bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Prithvi Raj Chavan on two separate petitions filed by the Kochhars, terming their arrest in the case related to irregularities in loans sanctioned to Venugopal Dhoot’s Videocon Group by ICICI Bank between 2009-2012 as illegal.
The petitions further sought quashing of the FIR lodged by CBI.
In its previous hearing, the High Court had observed that it was not entertaining the Kochhars’ petitions because of their son’s impending wedding, but purely on whether the notice issued to them was in compliance with Section 41A of CrPC or not.
Appearing for Chanda Kochhar, Senior Advocate Amit Desai contended that since the Kochhar’s had appeared before the investigating agency in compliance of Section 41A(3) of the CrPC, there was no need to arrest them. He further submitted that the arrest memo did not have the signature of a female officer.
Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhri, representing Deepak Kochhar, said that the couple had cooperated with the investigators, providing hundreds of pages in documents right from the outset.
He further submitted that Deepak was previously arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Deepak was subsequently released on bail after the appellate authority refused to confirm attachment of his assets, said Chaudhri.
The Advocates questioned the timing of Kochhars’ arrest on the eve of their son’s wedding. Kochhar’s son is scheduled to get married on January 15 and the functions related to the wedding were to start shortly.