A special CBI court in Mumbai on Thursday sent former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot to 14-day judicial custody in connection with a loan fraud case. This news would have brought a smile on the face of Arvind Gupta, the whistleblower who took it upon himself to expose the alleged scam in 2016, which is worth over Rs 3,000 crore.
Gupta had levelled allegations of quid pro quo on the former ICICI Bank MD and CEO in letters addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"ICICI bank looks like a one-person show. Out of the nine committees they have, Chanda Kochhar is present on six of them. Their work culture needs to be examined," he said in his letter.
In a recent interview with Moneycontrol, Gupta said the arrests form only the “tip of the iceberg".
The Kochhars were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last Friday. Dhoot was arrested on Monday.
The three were produced before special judge S H Gwalani at the end of their earlier remand on Thursday.
"The probe has not yet identified Chanda Kochhar’s coterie of officials. What has happened now is only an early and preliminary detention," said Gupta.
Gupta said Dhoot agreeing to become an approver "will open a Pandora's box". He also said that many questions remain unanswered and which will get addressed in due course of time. Why would a big corporate company form a JV with a banker’s husband, asked Gupta while referring to the former...
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