The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Bombay High Court order that had granted bail to Deepak Kochhar, husband of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
On March 25 last year, a single judge bench of the High Court had granted bail to Kochhar in the money laundering case, observing that there was no possibility of him absconding or tampering with evidence. He asked them to cooperate in the investigation.
In December 2020, Kochhar moved the High Court after a special court in Mumbai refused to entertain his bail plea. The ED moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order.
On Monday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the ED, submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana that the legal issues raised in the petition should be kept open for adjudication in the appropriate case.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Hema Kohli took note of Mehta’s submissions while dismissing the ED’s appeal.
“After hearing the Solicitor General appearing for the petitioner and perusing the material placed on record, we do not see any reason to interfere with the order passed by the High Court granting bail to the respondent No.
“The special leave petition is accordingly dismissed. As a sequel to the above, the pending negotiation application is also disposed of. However, the question of law is kept open for decision in the appropriate case.”
The High Court had directed Kochhar to surrender his passport before the city’s special court hearing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases. Kochhar was arrested by the ED in September 2020 in the alleged ICICI Bank-Videocon money laundering case.
The agency had registered the case after the CBI filed an FIR against the Kochhar couple, Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and others for allegedly causing damages to ICICI Bank.
The case pertained to sanctioning loans to Videocon group companies in violation of the bank’s policies.
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