look news india
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has said that the arrest by CBI of former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in the loan fraud case is an abuse of power. The court had earlier upheld the bail granted to Chanda Kochhar on June 6. Now the detailed decision of the High Court has been made available. In this, the court reprimanded the CBI in very strong words and said that the CBI has acted in an arbitrary and abusive manner.
The court said that the CBI failed to show that sufficient reasons or relevant material (documents etc.) were available behind the decision to arrest Chanda and Deepak Kochhar. A division bench of Justice Anuja Prabhudesai and Justice NR Borkar of the Bombay High Court said that 'such arrest without any solid reason is completely illegal. The bench said that making arrests without any solid reason and without respecting the process of law is an abuse of power.
On the last date, February 6, the High Court had declared the arrest of the Kochhar couple illegal. Detailed description of the decision has now been made available. In this decision, the High Court had upheld the interim bail given to Chanda Kochhar in January last year.
Kochhar couple was arrested by CBI on December 23, 2022 in the video scam-ICICI Bank loan case. He approached the High Court and sought bail through an interim order. In an interim order on January 9, 2023, the high court granted bail to the Kochhars, saying the CBI had made the arrest without any solid reason.
CBI argued that the Kochhar couple were not cooperating in the investigation. However, the High Court refused to accept this argument. The court said that the accused have the right to remain silent during interrogation.
The CBI has named Videocon International Electronics Limited, Videocon International Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Group, Deepak Kochhar-run Supreme Energy and NuPower Renewable Energy as accused under provisions of the Prevention of Fraud and Corruption Act. The agency in its FIR had mainly alleged that the accused hatched a criminal conspiracy and provided loans worth Rs 3,250 crore to these companies in violation of rules.
CBI also arrested Venugopal Dhoot. However, in a judgment dated January 2023, he was granted interim bail.
The bench, in its order dated February 6, said that Section 41A of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) was added to ensure that Manfav could not be arrested without any valid reason. The provision of Section 41A restricts the power to arrest the accused if the accused, after receiving a police notice, appears for questioning. The bench said, Section 41 says that arrest can be made only when the police feels that the arrest is necessary.
The FIR against the Kochhar couple was lodged in 2019 but they were called for questioning in 2022. The bench said that the Kochhar couple are appearing before the CBI after June 2022. Although this crime is very serious, the CBI did not bother to interrogate or summon the accused for three years after the complaint was filed. Since June 2022, whenever the Kochhars have been called for questioning, they have consistently appeared for questioning following summons issued under Section 41. Thus the denominator of the logic of non-cooperation in the investigation has been lost.
