ICICI bank chief, seven others booked for dacoity

NAGPUR: ICICI bank CEO M V Kamath and seven others have been charged with dacoity after a car financed by the bank was allegedly forcibly repossessed, police said on Friday.

The offences under section 395 (punishment for dacoity), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 29 (document) and 506 (b) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the IPC were registered against Kamath and others after a local court directed police to do so on a complaint by a borrower.

Complainant Praveen Deshmukh had purchased a car in 2006 after securing a loan of Rs 1.40 lakh.

After his initial failure to repay one installment of the loan, Deshmukh claimed he went to the bank to pay but officials there refused to accept it. He again went to the bank on March 13 but officials allegedly refused to accept his payment and a team led by manager (NPA) Ajay Tiwari "confiscated" his car.

Deshmukh approached the district consumer forum on March 16 and the next day, the forum issued a notice to ICICI.

Later Deshmukh also filed a criminal complaint in a local court, which directed police to register offences against Kamath, senior general manager Maninder Juneja, national collection manager Vikrant Jethi, product head Nahal Desai (all from Delhi) and other local staff.