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Synopsis

A Bombay High Court division bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice PK Chavan has granted interim relief to Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot in the ICICI Videocon loan fraud case. 

Venugopal Dhoot has been ordered to be released from judicial custody after depositing a bail bond of Rs. 1 lakh rupees.

Dhoot was arrested after Chanda Kochhar granted a loan of Rs. 3250 crores to the Videocon Group which were later declared as Non-Performing Assets. Allegedly, Venugopal Dhoot, as a quid pro quo, made investments in the company of Deepak Kochhar.

Dhoot had earlier filed a plea before the Special Judge seeking to declare his arrest as illegal. However, the special judge rejected his contentions while declaring his arrest as legal and remanded him to judicial custody. Dhoot then moved the high court challenging the order of the Special Judge.

Senior Advocate Raja Thakare appeared for the CBI and Advocate Sandeep Ladda appeared for Dhoot.

Advocate Ladda argued that the mandate of Section 41 of CrPC was not followed by the police. He relied on the investigation done by the ED in the connected case and submitted that Dhoot had appeared before ED multiple times and also during COVID. He further argued that Dhoot is 72 years old and has several health conditions.

On the other hand, Senior Advocate Raja Thakare argued that the investigation done by CBI and ED was on a different footing and that the charges under which Dhoot had been booked were also different. Further, he argued that there were instances where co-accused Kochhar and Dhoot had made attempts not to appear before the agency together.

Thakare said that they could interrogate three of them only twice. However, Advocate Ladda submitted that the three of them were never confronted together.

Case Title: Venugopal Nandlal Dhoot vs CBI