Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrested Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot in connection with the ICICI Bank loan fraud case. The arrest was made from Mumbai just two days after the CBI took former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar into a three-day remand on Saturday. The arrests were made Friday in connection with alleged cheating and irregularities in loans sanctioned by Chanda Kochhar to Videocon.
The 71-year-old Dhoot was named in the case along with the Kochhars and companies Nupower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd, and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in the FIR registered under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2019, the officials said.
The CBI had alleged that ICICI Bank had sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to the companies of Videocon Group promoted by Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines, and credit policy of the bank. It was also alleged that as a part of the quid pro quo, Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL) and transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route between 2010 and 2012, the FIR has alleged.
Also read: CBI gets 3-day remand of former ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar, husband in Videocon loan case
The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Deepak Kochhar and Dhoot in March 2018 to probe alleged irregularities in the Rs 40,000 crore loan made by a consortium of lenders to the Videocon Group. During its preliminary enquiry, the CBI found six loans worth Rs 1,875 crore were sanctioned to the Videocon Group and companies associated with it between June 2009 and October 2011 in an alleged violation of laid-down policies of ICICI Bank, which are part of the probe. The agency has also said that the loans were declared non-performing assets in 2012, causing a loss of Rs 1,730 crore to the bank.
