ICICI chief’s brother-in-law stopped at Mumbai airport, CBI continues quizzing
07 Apr 2018
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The CBI continued to examine Rajiv Kochhar, brother-in-law of ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, on Saturday in connection with the Rs3,250-crore loan granted by the bank to the Videocon group in 2012.
Rajiv, who has not been named in the preliminary enquiry (PE) into the probe, was however, prevented from boarding a flight to Singapore on Thursday night from Mumbai airport. Immigration officials stopped him from leaving Mumbai and he was taken to the CBI office.
Authorities have, however, issued a look-out circular to prevent the two key persons named in the PE – Venugopal Dhoot, the Videocon group promoter, and Deepak Kochhar, Chanda’s husband – from leaving the country.
The CBI officials reportedly quizzed Rajiv on issues relating to Avista Advisory, his firm, and the loan granted by ICICI to Videocon.
According to sources, Rajiv told the officials that he was heading to his office in Singapore and it was legitimate business.
There was speculation in the media as to whether the CBI had named Chanda as well in its PE report. Official sources claimed it had not been issued and no restrictions have been imposed on her foreign travels.
Dhoot also denied that restrictions had been imposed on his foreign travels. He claimed that his passport had expired two months ago and he had not left India for more than five years.
