The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed Enforcement Directorate’s plea against Bombay High Court’s order granting bail to Deepak Kochhar, husband of ex-ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, an accused in the multi-crore ICICI Bank-Videocon money laundering case.
A Bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli dismissed the special leave petition but kept the questions of law open.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had on the last occasion urged the Court to tag ED’s challenge to the bail along with the batch of pleas challenging the validity of provisions of the Prevention Of Money Laundering Act pending before the top Court.
“This is against regular bail, I know the limitations. Notice and tagging is the request I’m making. The matter be tagged with PMLA matter in which question of section 45 of PMLA Act is under consideration,” SG had said.
The CJI-led Bench had however decided to list the matter before itself.
The High Court through its impugned order dated 25th March 2021 granted bail to Kochhar on the condition that he would execute a PR Bond of Rs. 3 lakh and deposit his passport.
Kochhar had argued that an Appellate Authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act had exonerated him on November 6, 2020, when it dismissed ED’s plea to confirm the attachment of their assets.
The ED claimed these were the proceeds of crime. Kochhar had, however, argued that while there are 11 accused (some of the companies), only Deepak Kochhar was arrested.
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