SC disposes of CBI’s plea against interim bail to Chanda Kochhar & her husband

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday disposed of a plea by the CBI against an order passed by the Bombay High Court, last year, granting interim bail to former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her businessman-husband Deepak Kochhar in the loan fraud case.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal took into consideration a submission by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju for the CBI that the high court had last week delivered its verdict in the main case but the judgment has not been uploaded so far.

Upon this, the bench said it is disposing of the CBI’s plea but the either side will have the liberty to challenge the high court's main verdict in accordance with law.

The bench also clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the case.

The couple was arrested by the CBI on December 23, 2022 in the Videocon-ICICI Bank loan case.

The high court, on February 6, held the arrest of Chanda Kochhar and her husband by the CBI as “illegal”, and confirmed its January 2023 interim order granting bail to the couple.

After their arrest, the Kochhar couple moved the high court challenging their arrest and sought it to be declared as illegal. They also sought to be released on bail as an interim relief.

The high court passed an interim order in January 2023, granting bail to the couple and pulled up CBI for making the arrest in a “casual and mechanical” manner without application of mind. The probe agency challenged this interim order before the apex court.