Chanda Kochhar, who was arrested for a cash-for-loan scam on Friday, was once a powerful banker and instrumental in making ICICI Bank the country’s biggest private sector lender.
Kochhar, a regular feature on Forbes top global honchos lists, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with alleged cheating and irregularities in loans sanctioned by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group companies. Kochhars were called to the agency headquarters and arrested after a brief questioning session.
Her chapter at ICICI Bank ended abruptly in 2018 when the board of directors approved a request from Kochhar to seek early retirement following allegation of corruption and quid pro-quo while extending loans to the now bankrupt Videocon Industries.
Kochhar, who rose to occupy the corner office at the largest private sector lender, was mired in allegations of conflicts of interest, lack of disclosures and quid pro-quo while extending loans to Videocon. She, in fact, was the first woman to head a large lender in the country.
Kochhar, a favourite of the then group chairman K V Kamath, joined ICICI, an infrastructure lender in its earlier avatar, as a management trainee in 1984.
She rose to play an important part in its transformation into a retail-focused lender when it turned into a commercial bank in the early 1990s.
In 2009, she was chosen to succeed the larger-than-life Kamath as the managing director and chief executive…
