ICICI board members divided over Kochhar’s future at bank
NEWDELHI/KOLKATA: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to intervene in rural polls in West Bengal, where the election process has been marred by political violence, and asked the BJP and other parties to take their grievances to the state poll panel.
The decision came as a setback for the BJP’S Bengal unit, which had filed a petition alleging its workers were being assaulted and candidates were being prevented from filing nominations by supporters of the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The BJP also asked for central forces.
The TMC appeared to have won the Birbhum zila parishad with 41 of the 42 seats uncontested on Monday, but the state poll panel later said it was extending the deadline for filing nominations to Tuesday. NEWDELHI: Some members of ICICI Bank’s board have informally discussed the wisdom of persisting with managing director and CEO Chanda Kochhar, but a formal discussion involving the full board, leave alone a decision, is unlikely to happen before the end of April, when the board is scheduled to meet next, a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
An ICICI Bank spokesperson said any talk of such a discussion is “baseless and incorrect”.
To be sure, emergency meetings of boards could be convened, and a second person familiar with the matter said, again on condition of anonymity, that one of ICICI Bank’s board could happen even next week.
Several investigative agencies are looking at improprieties and conflicts of interest in a loan extended by ICICI Bank to the Videocon Group.
Separately, Bloomberg News reported that the bank’s board “which less than two weeks ago expressed full faith” in Kochhar is now “divided”. The news agency added, citing unnamed sources, that some independent external directors are “opposed to Kochhar continuing in her role.” According to Bloomberg, Kochhar’s current term runs till March 31, 2019.
The second person cited above added the discussion regarding Kochhar’s future could be happening at the behest of the finance ministry, which is watching happenings in India’s largest private sector lender with concern. day. “We were getting threats and they killed my father”.
The MLA was identified as Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the representative from Unnao’s Bangarmau constituency. He and his aides were accused of rape by the woman last year, but he has not been formally named by police in the rape case. Sengar rejected the charge as a conspiracy by opponents and said the complainant belonged to a “low class”, even as six policemen were suspended and Adityanath assured whosoever is guilty will not be spared. Doctors who examined the woman’s father after he spent two days in police custody over an Arms Act case noted 19 i njury marks, according to people who were present at the hospital during the examination on April 5. He was not taken to a hospital until Sunday evening when he became seriously ill with vomiting and severe abdominal pain.
The woman alleged that when the family returned to Unnao from Delhi earlier this month to file a petition for Sengar to be named in the rape case, his brother Atul Singh and his aides assaulted her father.
edited by Arghya Sengupta and Ritwika Sharma in the national capital on Monday.
Justice Chelameswar, the second senior most judge of the SC, and three of his colleagues courted controversy in January this year when they held a press conference and aired their views on the need to bring in changes in the functioning of the top court. MUMBAI: