Bank loan fraud case: High Court grants interim bail to Venugopal Dhoot
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The court allowed him to furnish a cash bond and deposit the surety amount after two weeks. The bench also rejected the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to stay its order so that it can appeal in the Supreme Court.
Mumbai The Bombay High Court on Friday allowed the interim bail application of Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot, nearly a month after his arrest in the ICICI Bank-Videocon loan fraud case. A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice PK Chavan granted bail to Dhoot on a surety of Rs one lakh. The court allowed him to furnish a cash bond and deposit the surety amount after two weeks. The bench also rejected the request of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to stay its order so that it can appeal in the Supreme Court. The court also dismissed an application filed by a lawyer to intervene in the matter and recall the order passed by the same bench granting interim bail to co-accused- former CEO and MD of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar. Gave.
The bench also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the lawyer. Dhoot had moved the high court on January 10, when the same bench had granted bail to the Kochhars. The Kochhar couple were arrested on 23 December 2022. Dhoot’s lawyer Sandeep Ladda had argued that Dhoot’s arrest was unwarranted as he had cooperated with the investigation. The CBI, however, opposed this, saying that the Videocon Group founder had tried to evade probe and his arrest was valid. The High Court heard the arguments on January 13. Dhoot, currently in judicial custody, had sought quashing of the CBI FIR and his release on interim bail.
Dhoot had termed his arrest by the CBI as “arbitrary, illegal, without following due process of law and in gross violation of Section 41(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which mandates that the accused be It is mandatory to issue notices and arrests should be made only when it is absolutely necessary.” While granting interim bail to the Kochhars, the high court accused them of arresting them “negligently” and “indiscriminately”. Had also expressed unhappiness towards CBI for this. The CBI has named the Kochhars, Nupower Renewables (NRL) run by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Limited and Videocon Industries Limited as accused in the FIR registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2019.
The agency alleges that ICICI Bank extended credit facilities of Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon group companies promoted by Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines and the bank’s lending policy. Was approved. According to the FIR, in lieu of this approval, Dhoot invested Rs 64 crore in NuPower Renewables through Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL) and fraudulently transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust between 2010 and 2012. The management of Pinnacle Energy Trust and NRL was with Deepak Kochhar.
Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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