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NEW DELHI: India's second-largest private sector bank does not agree tointo allegations of nepotism against its chief executive. ICICI Bank refuted allegations that a loan was given to the Videocon group due to its business dealing with chief executive Chanda Kochhar 's husband.Whistleblower Arvind Gupta has demanded a forensic audit but the bank has ruled out hiring external agencies to conduct an independent investigation into allegations of nepotism.The latest is,, the income-tax department has served a notice to Deepak Kochhar— founder director of NuPower Renewables and husband of ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar—asking him to explain alleged investments received from two entities based in Mauritius and furnish details as to who all are directors in these two companies. Kochhar had allegedly received huge funds, running into hundreds of crores, from overseas entities. The department is investigating the trail of finances and people behind these 'investments'.The Videocon loan issue was first raised by whistleblower Gupta in 2016 when he wrote about it on a blog. Gupta claimed ICICI Bank granted a Rs 3,250 crore loan to Videocon Industries in 2012 mainly due to the business relations between Deepak Kochhar and the Videocon Group. The Videocon loan had later turned a non-performing asset.Gupta alleged that a company owned by Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot loaned Rs 64 crore in March 2010 to NuPower Renewables that he and Deepak Kochhar had jointly promoted just two year ago. A complex web of deals resulted in a trust controlled by Deepak Kochhar acquiring the lending company six months after the Videocon Group got the loan from ICICI Bank. The transfer of company shares to Kochhar’s trust was made at a paltry Rs 9 lakh.A company that loaned an amount as big as Rs 64 crore, was acquired by the trust Deepak Kochchar controlled for as small an amount as Rs 9 lakh. This raised the whistleblower's eyebrow.Dhoot also sold his 50 per cent stake in NuPower Renewables for just Rs 2.5 lakh to Deepak Kochhar. Gupta alleges that ICICI Bank awarding the loan to Videocon and the loan later becoming an NPA in 2017 were due to Dhoot's business relations with Deepak Kochhar whose wife, Chanda, was part of the committee that sanctioned the loan. Nearly 86 per cent of Videocon's ICICI Bank loan remains unpaid.A week ago, ICICI Bank chairman. He said the the board did not see any conflict of interest since the Videocon group was not an investor in NuPower Renewables and, therefore, there was no need for Chanda Kochhar to recuse herself from the committee that sanctioned the loan.He said the committee had many independent directors and was not chaired by her. He also said that the loan disbursed to Videocon Group was part of a consortium arrangement where terms and conditions had already been agreed upon by the lender group. Sharma said Chanda Kochhar had also made all the necessary disclosures.But, a few days later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)to probe alleged nexus between Kochhar's husband and Dhoot. Though the enquiry is not equivalent to registration of a case, the fact that the country's top investigation agency has taken notice of the allegations did make the bank's shareholders skeptical.The case is still unravelling. In a new twist, PTI reported that ICICI Bank borrowers, including Jaiprakash Associates and Jaiprakash Power, had hired services allegedly of a firm, Avista Advisory Group, run by Chanda Kochhar's brother-in-law Rajiv Kochhar (brother of Deepak Kochhar).Among the companies that are said to have hired services of Avista for restructuring of debt are Videocon, GTL Infrastructure and Suzlon. ICICI Bank was a lender to all these entities. The bank has denied that it had ever engaged Avista Advisory Group for any services. Earlier, the bank had said that the brother of a husband did not fall within the definition of a “relative” under the Companies Act and, therefore, there was no requirement for making any disclosure of such a relationship.Yesterday, shares of ICICI Bank slumped 5.9 per cent, the most in two-and-a-half years. The stock has declined more than 20 per cent in the past two months. The market seems to have delivered a stern message to the bank. It didn't stop at that. ICICI Securities, a subsidiary of the bank and India's largest broking firm, made a weak debut on the bourses. The scrip got listed at Rs 435 on the NSE, a 16.35 per cent discount to the issue price of Rs 520. On the BSE, it listed at Rs 431.10, down 17.10 per cent.