Loan fraud case: Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot gets interim bail
According to the CBI, between June 2009 and October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned rupee term loans (RTLs) of Rs 1,875 crore to six companies of Videocon Group for the purpose of enabling them to repay the loans to M/s Videocon Industries Limited.
FollowThe Bombay High Court granted interim bail to Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot who was arrested by the CBI last month in connection with a loan fraud case on Friday (January 20). Dhoot had approached the high court after a special CBI court rejected his plea on January 5. Dhoot had claimed that his arrest, that was held on December 26, was illegal.
The Videocon group promoter had approached the high court as the co-accused in the case (Chanda Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar) got bail amid the probe earlier this month. On December 24, the Kochhars were arrested by the CBI. While granting them bail, the court had observed that their arrest was "not in conformity with provisions of law".
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S Ladda and Viral Babar - Dhoot's lawyers - had argued that he had always cooperated with the investigating officer. He was never arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, they had insisted, which has already filed its prosecution complaint before the special PMLA court in a connected case.
According to the CBI, between June 2009 and October 2011, ICICI Bank had sanctioned rupee term loans (RTLs) of Rs 1,875 crore to six companies of Videocon Group for the purpose of enabling them to repay the loans to M/s Videocon Industries Limited.
As per allegations, these loans were sanctioned after Chanda Kochhar took over as the MD and CEO of the bank. She was on the sanctioning committee when two loans - RTL of Rs 300 crore to M/s Videocon International Electronics Limited and RTL of Rs 750 crore to M/S Videocon Industries Limited - were sanctioned.
The loan was disbursed September 7, 2009, and, the next day, Videocon Group - via its firm, Supreme Energy Private Limited, transferred Rs 64 crore to NuPower Renewables Limited. That firm was managed by Deepak Kochhar.
