Bombay HC grants interim bail to Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot

The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim bail to arrested Videocon group chairman VN Dhoot. The Videocon founder had approached the high court after a division bench on January 9 granted bail to co-accused Chanda Kochhar, former managing director and chief executive officer of the ICICI bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar.

The High Court had come down heavily on the CBI for making the arrest in a "casual and mechanical" manner and without application of mind.

Dhoot's lawyer had argued at the Bombay High Court that his arrest was unwarranted as he was cooperating with the probe. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation claimed that he was trying to avoid the probe.


CBI arrested Dhoot on December 26, 2022, and is presently in judicial custody.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan after hearing both Dhoot's lawyer Sandeep Laddha and CBI's counsel Raja Thakare had earlier reserved its order on interim relief.

In his plea, Dhoot termed his arrest by CBI as "arbitrary, illegal, done without following due procedure of law and in gross violation of section 41 (A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which mandates for a notice to be issued to accused to join the probe and to make an arrest only if absolutely necessary".

The CBI had named the Kochhars and Dhoot, along with companies Nupower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy Private Limited (SEPL), Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and Videocon Industries Limited, as accused in its FIR registered in 2019 under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI has alleged that ICICI Bank had sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to companies of the Videocon Group promoted by Dhoot in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI guidelines, and credit policy of the bank.

According to the CBI, a sanctioning committee headed by Chanda Kochhar in 2009 approved a term loan of Rs 300 crore to VIEL in contravention of the rules and policies of the bank by abusing her official position as a public servant.

The day after the loan was disbursed, Dhoot transferred Rs 64 crore to NRL from VIEL through SEPL.