SC to Hear Today CBI's Plea against Bail to Chanda Kochhar

The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a decision of the Bombay High Court releasing former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar on bail in the alleged Videocon loan fraud case.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar will take up the CBI’s special leave petition for hearing.

Earlier in February this year, the top court had disposed of the central investigative agency’s plea against the January 2023 decision of the Bombay HC granting interim bail to Kochhar.

However, it had granted liberty to the CBI to file a fresh appeal against the final decision of the High Court confirming the interim bail granted to the Kochhar couple.

In a decision pronounced on February 6, a Division Bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and Nitin R. Borkar of the Bombay High Court confirmed the interim bail order passed in January last year.

“The arrest on 23.12.2022 was not on the basis of any additional material discovered in the course of the investigation but was based on the same material which was within the knowledge of the Investigating Officer at the time of issuance of notice under Section 41A. Such routine arrest without application of mind and due regard to the law amounts to an abuse of power and does not satisfy the requirement of Section 41A(3) Cr.P.C.,” said the high court, adding that the CBI failed to demonstrate the “existence of circumstances or supportive material on the basis of which the decision to arrest was taken.”

Chanda Kochhar and her businessman husband Deepak Kochhar are alleged to have received kickbacks over her tenure in lieu of loans provided to the Videocon group.