The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 78 crore belonging to Chanda Kochhar, former ICICI Bank CEO & managing director, and her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with a money laundering probe against them.
The agency on Friday said that a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been issued for the attachment of properties such as flat, land and plant and machinery of a windfarm project based in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In a statement, the ED said that these assets are “in possession” of Kochhar, her husband and the companies owned and controlled by him.
While the book value of these assets is Rs 78.15 crore, PTI quoting officials said their market value is about Rs 600 crore.
The ED had slapped money laundering charges against the Kochhars and their business entities in January last year for “illegal sanctioning of loans amounting to Rs 1,875 crore to the Videocon Group of companies”. This was after the agency studied a CBI FIR against the Kochhars and carried out raids.
The ED said its probe found that an amount of Rs 64 crore, out of the loan amount of Rs 300 crore sanctioned by a committee headed by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon International Electronics, was transferred to Nupower Renewables, a company of Deepak Kochhar.