Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot Files Fresh Plea In Bombay High Court Against Arrest In ICICI Bank Loan Fraud Case

Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot has approached the Bombay High Court in a quashing petition alleging illegal arrest by the CBI in the ICICI Bank – Videocon loan fraud case and sought his release.

The division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Prakash Naik agreed to place the matter ‘high on board’ tomorrow after it was mentioned by Dhoot’s counsels this afternoon.

The same bench earlier granted interim relief to co-accused ex-ICICI bank MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar and ordered their release on cash bail of Rs. 1 lakh. The court held that the arrest and the special court’s orders remanding them in custody were in violation of section 41 of the CrPC.

In his petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, Dhoot has sought quashing of the special CBI court’s remand orders of 26, 28 and 29 December, 2022 and asked the high court to declare his arrest in gross violation of Sections 41 and 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and Article 14, 19(1)(d) and 21 of the Constitution of India.

The arrest is arbitrary and he is a senior citizen suffering from various ailments, his counsel has said before the court.

Dhoot was arrested after the Kochhars and booked under Sections 7, 13(2) r/w 13(1) & (d) of PC Act, 420 & 120 B of IPC, being investigated by CBI.

Dhoot has claimed that his arrest and subsequent remand is without any basis and violates his fundamental rights. He has argued the CBI wrongly claimed he hasn’t cooperated with investigators. My statement was recorded on December 22, 2022 and I appeared again after belatedly learning about the section 41A notice issued to me, Dhoot has told the court. 

Moreover, the notice was not served physically and merely pasted on the wall of his Bombay office even as he resides in Aurangabad, the plea before court states.

Dhoot has also submitted he wasn’t arrested by ED in the PMLA Case. The arrest is in violation of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar and Anr., 2014 (8) SCC 273 r/w Satender Antil Vs. CBI 2022 (10) SCC 51, Siddharth Vs, State of Up 2022(1) SCC 676.

The petition has been filed through Advocate Sandeep Ladda’s office and will be heard tomorrow.

The Case

The CBI began investigating the couple in January 2018 after reports that Videocon's Dhoot paid a firm he had allegedly set up with Deepak and two relatives, six months after his firm got a Rs 3,250 crore loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.

The irregularities were with regard to the grant of six high-value loans worth around Rs 1,575 crore to five firms of the Videocon Group between June 2009 and October 2011. The loans were granted in contravention of the rules and policy of sanctioning committee, the agency has alleged.

These loans were later termed as non-performing assets resulting in wrongful loss to ICICI bank and wrongful gain to the borrowers and accused persons, the CBI said. The total misappropriation is to the tune of Rs.1,730 crore as of April 26, 2012, according to the agency.