ICICI Bank fraud:ED found many dummy directors

A charge sheet filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the ICICI Bank bribery scandal involving its former managing director Chanda Kochhar reveals how her husband Deepak Kochar and Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot had appointed drivers, gardeners, office boys, and other junior employees as dummy directors in their companies. Statements of these employees, which are now part of the charge sheet, were recorded by the ED. Some of them have claimed that they never even heard about the companies in which they were made directors.

The ED charge sheet says Kesharmal Nensukhlal Gandhi, who worked as a cleaner at Dhoot’s bungalow in Ahmednagar since 1994, was director in IRCL (Indian Refrigerator Company Ltd). He told ED that he was “neither aware about the company IRCL, nor aware about his directorship in IRCL and others. He was also unaware about transactions carried out by the company”. Gandhi told ED he used to sign documents on the directions of Dhoot and hadn’t attended any board meetings of the company.Another employee, Laxmikant Sudhakar Katore, who worked as a gardener in M/s Videocon International from 2001 till 2016, told ED he was unaware about his directorship in various companies and 50% shareholding in RCPL . Katore received only his salary – Rs10,000 from the company.

Deepak Kochhar too appointed people who had nothing to do with the business of his companies as directors. He made his childhood friend Anand Mohan Dalwani director in six companies. Dalwani told ED he used to sign documents only on Kochhar’s instructions. Chanda Kochhar’s brother’s wife Neelam Mahesh Advani was made director in various companies of Deepak Kochhar including – Pacific Capital Services Pvt Ltd (PCSPL) – but she was a dummy director like others and a “benami person holding shares of these companies”, ED has said. The agency has presented a strong argument that Rs64 crore investment by Videocon group into Deepak Kochhar’s company NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) was bribe money.Kochhars’ lawyer Vijay Aggarwal has slammed the ED charge sheet saying the allegations are baseless and that the charges will not stand scrutiny in court of law.