MUMBAI: The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it would not take enforcement action against Chanda Kochhar, former managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank, in the securities fraud case. ready. The 63-year-old had approached the High Court fearing arrest after receiving a summons from the SFIO earlier this month to be questioned over the case.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, who represented Kocchar, showed the court the SFIO notice, which was issued on November 5 at 8:51 p.m. He told a bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj Chavan that the SFIO was “working late” to send the notice to Kocchar. In her plea, Kochhar argued that elderly people like her should not be questioned beyond working hours.

The court granted interim relief to Kochhar and ordered the SFIO not to question him beyond office hours. The court referred to an order passed on October 25 that no coercive action should be taken against Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar, who had received a similar notice from the SFIO. The court had ordered the agency to question him only during working hours.

The Kochhars are being investigated under the Prevention of Corruption Act for granting loans worth a few thousand crores to Videocon group companies when she was the head of the ICICI bank. The founder of Videocon, Venugopal Dhoot, had in turn invested ₹64 crores in Deepak Kochhar’s Nupower Renewables Ltd. A multi-crore apartment in Mumbai owned by the Videocon group was also reportedly transferred to the Kochhar family trust in 2016 for a meager ₹11 million.

The Kochhars were arrested in 2022 and later released on bail by the High Court. Now, after more than three years, the SFIO has summoned the couple for questioning.