Thursday, October 3

I-T Dept Issues Notice to Deepak Kochhar over Videocon Loan Case

The ICICI-Videocon Loan Row case has already blazed too much attention and adding to it, now the Income Tax Department has issued a notice to Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar, CEO, and MD at ICICI Bank.

Issued under I-T Act, section-131, Deepak has been asked to submit all details relating to his personal expenses, Income tax returns and his business transactions with NuPower Renewables.

Section-131 of I.T act deals with issues relating to production and discovery of evidence wherein income tax officials can ask for account books and statements.

Indian tax officials will seek information from its Mauritian counterpart regarding investments made in entities and the person behind those entities under the amended tax treaty. As per inside sources, a bank official said that First Land had invested in NuPower in several tranches.

While Central Bureau of Investigation is already conducting its inquiries into the dealings between Deepak Kochchar and the Videocon Group, the notice from I-T dept is posing a scenario for further inspections.The investigations from C.B.I are trying to figure out if the loans of worth Rs. 3,250 given to Videocon group by ICICI Bank were in response to transactions between NuPower Renewables, a company jointly owned by Deepak Kochhar and Venugopal Dhoot, Videocon Group’s Chairman.

NuPower Renewables has also earned a lot of defamation following the Videocon Loan Row case.It is a power producing company in the renewable sector which has nearly 700 MW of energy assets and pipelines spread across Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Amidst CBI allegations and loan row case inquiries relating to Videocon Group, Chanda Kochhar has taken off FICCI Ladies Organisation which was to be held later this coming week, and where the CEO was to be felicitated by President Ram Nath Kovind.