ICICI Bank board on Monday appointed Sandeep Bakhshi as chief operating officer, and CEO Chanda Kochhar has decided to be on leave till enquiry into the Videocon loan case is over. Bakhshi’s tenure kicks in tomorrow. Kochhar will continue with her role as managing director and chief executive officer.
Kochhar’s leadership has come under a cloud after allegations of a conflict of interest over loans made to Videocon Group, whose chairman Venugopal Dhoot had business links with her husband Deepak Kochhar. The allegations first surfaced in 2016, but the bank’s board had given her a clean chit following an internal investigation.
Multiple government agencies are probing the alleged lapses involving Chanda Kochhar and her family members. The lender is also carrying out an independent probe into allegations of ‘conflict of interest’ and ‘quid pro quo’ in Kochhar’s dealing with certain borrowers.
There have been allegations of involvement of Kochhar and her family members in a loan provided to Videocon Group on a quid pro quo basis. It was alleged that Videocon pumped money into NuPower Renewables, a firm owned by Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar.
Some companies of Videocon group secured over Rs 3,000 crore in loans from ICICI Bank, along with a group of 19 other banks, in 2012
