An appellate tribunal under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA) has held former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar guilty of accepting a Rs 64 crore bribe in exchange for sanctioning a Rs 300 crore loan to the Videocon Group in 2009.

The tribunal, in its July 3, 2025 order, concluded that the payment was a quid pro quo arrangement, with the money routed through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd, a company controlled by Kochhar’s husband, Deepak Kochhar.

The loan in question had been cleared by a committee headed by Chanda Kochhar herself, reported NDTV Profit.

Overturning a 2020 order from the adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which had directed the release of assets worth Rs 78 crore, the tribunal described the earlier ruling as based on “irrelevant considerations” and for having “ignored material facts.”

According to the tribunal’s findings, the Rs 64 crore was transferred just one day after ICICI Bank disbursed the Rs 300 crore loan to Videocon International Electronics Ltd.

While NuPower was originally held in the name of Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot, the tribunal accepted Dhoot’s PMLA statement that Deepak Kochhar was in full control of the company.

The tribunal backed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) view that the ₹64 crore represented proceeds of crime, reinforcing the provisional attachment of Kochhar family assets.

Among the attached properties is a prime flat in Mumbai’s Churchgate area, which the tribunal said was acquired by Kochhar’s family trust through Videocon-linked companies at an undervalued price of Rs 11 lakh.

While Chanda Kochhar has denied wrongdoing, the tribunal noted “gross misconduct” and failure to disclose a conflict of interest during the loan sanctioning process.

The ruling marks a key turning point in a case that originated from a January 2019 FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), based on 2016 whistleblower complaints.

The FIR named Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon Group’s Venugopal Dhoot, charging them with criminal conspiracy, cheating and abuse of official position.

Kochhar had stepped down as ICICI Bank CEO in October 2018. She, her husband, and Dhoot were arrested in December 2022 but are out on bail. The case remains under judicial scrutiny, with the Supreme Court monitoring the proceedings.

Of the total seized assets, only Rs 10.5 lakh in cash has been returned to Kochhar after she furnished proof of legitimate origin.

The chargesheet in the case runs over 11,000 pages and outlines that Kochhar, during her tenure as ICICI CEO, approved loans totalling Rs 1,875 crore to Videocon-linked firms, a portion of which was later restructured.