Transactions worth ₹15 cr under ED lens
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court remanded former ICICI Bank managing director Chanda Kochhar’s husband, Deepak Kochhar, until September 10 to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Deepak Kochhar’s remand, a day after his arrest, came as the ED investigates over two dozen transactions worth over ₹15 crore in three bank accounts of Deepak Kochhar in Mumbai between 2008 and 2019, people familiar with the matter said. Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, along with Sunil Gonsalves, seeking Kochhar’s custody, argued that his interrogation was required to determine crucial aspects of funds received by his company and unravel the money trail.
The people familiar with the matter said two transactions, one worth ₹2.20 crore by Chanda Kochhar in her husband’s account on November 23, 2010 and another worth ₹1.39 crore by her sister Karna Varuna Jaiprakash on January 14, 2016, are of particular interest to ED investigators.
The agency sought details from Deepak Kochhar about these two transactions in his HDFC Bank account but said he had not provided them until Monday. ED is looking into the transactions carried out by Deepak Kochhar with two companies , Pacific Capital Services Pvt Ltd (PCSPL) and Opel Properties Pvt Ltd (OPPL), suspected to be linked to him, according to documents reviewed by HT.
Kochhar received ₹40 lakh in his DBS Bank account in Mumbai from OPPL on June 26, 2009 out of which ₹39 lakh was transferred to his company Nupower Renewables Ltd (NRL) the next day. Subsequently, he received ₹75,000 from OPPL on January 27, 2010. In all, there were nine transactions in DBS, the documents show.
On May 2, 2008, he received ₹20 lakh in his ICICI Bank account in Mumbai from OPPL, which was transferred to NRL on May 4. An amount of ₹65,000 was received by him in the same account from PCSPL on July 30, 2008.
ED documents also reveal that the agency sought details of at least 15 transactions in Deepak Kochhar’s HDFC Bank account on different occasions; it wants to know the details of the senders and purposes of transfers. The 15 payments, totaling around ₹9 crore, were made within a period of three months, from June 29, 2010 to September 18, 2010. These payments ranged from ₹4 lakh to ₹2 crore. “All these transactions point to layering and money laundering. But we want to be sure so we asked Deepak Kochhar. However, he was being evasive. We hope he will reveal all details during custodial interrogation,” the officer cited above said.
ED took up the probe into money laundering after the Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case of corruption against the Kochhar couple. CBI initiated its inquiry in 2017 against the couple on the basis of a whistle blower complaint about quid pro quos for loans sanctioned by ICICI Bank.