The MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar on Friday who made her first public appearance since the CBI registered a preliminary enquiry against firms controlled by her husband Deepak Kocchar and Venugopal Dhoot, promoter of Videocon Group following allegations of a possible conflict of interest in the Rs 3,250-crore loan granted by ICICI Bank to Videocon Group in 2012 chose not to comment on the ongoing controversy.

Kochhar attended an event in Mumbai titled India Economic Summit, jointly organised by India Foundation, a think-tank run by Shaurya Doval, son of National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval and the BSE.

Kocchar was first of the many prominent guests to arrive at the event and was immediately escorted to the VIP room at the convention hall of BSE Ltd by Ashish Chauhan, CEO of BSE. Later D R Kaarthikeyen, former CBI director, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Sanjiv Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance joined her in the VIP room , where they were all together for about 15 minutes. Shaurya Doval and Vallabh Bhansali, chairman of ENAM Group too dropped by in the VIP room.

Outside the VIP room, at least three security guards of BSE and four people from the official public relations agency of ICICI Bank ensured that no media persons were allowed inside the VIP room during the meeting.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal were also present on the first day of the two-day summit.

On March 29, The Indian Express had reported that in December 2008, Dhoot set up a company called NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL) with Deepak Kochhar and two relatives; then gave a Rs 64-crore loan to this company through a fully owned entity before he transferred the latter’s ownership to a trust headed by Deepak Kochhar for just Rs 9 lakh.

The transfer of the company to Deepak Kochhar happened six months after the Videocon Group got a loan of Rs 3,250 crore from ICICI Bank, raising questions of propriety and conflict of interest. Almost 86 per cent of that loan (Rs 2,810 crore) remained unpaid and the Videocon account was declared an NPA in 2017.

Earlier, ICICI Bank had issued a press release saying “there is no question of any quid pro quo/ nepotism/ conflict of interest as is being alleged in various rumours.” It said the Board “reposes full faith” in Chanda Kochhar and added that “malicious and unfounded rumours” were being spread to “malign the Bank.”