ED chargesheets UK national in probe against Videocon Group

PTI

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has chargesheeted a British citizen in a bank loan fraud-linked money laundering case against the Videocon Group related to financing the company's oil and gas assets in Mozambique, Brazil, and Indonesia.

The supplementary prosecution complaint names Sachin Dev Duggal, Chairman of Swiss company nHoldings SA and beneficial owner of Indian tech firms Nivio Technologies and Engineer.AI, the agency said in a statement.


Duggal is a citizen and resident of the United Kingdom. He failed to appear before the ED and provided only "partial and evasive" documentary submissions via email during the investigation, it said.

The ED filed the first chargesheet in this case in December 2025, naming Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot and 12 others as accused.

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) took cognisance of the first chargesheet in February.

The money laundering case stems from a June 2020 CBI FIR, which alleged that Videocon Hydrocarbon Holdings Limited (VHHL), a wholly-owned step-down subsidiary of Videocon Industries Limited (VIL), availed a Standby Letter of Credit (SBLC) facility of USD 2,773.60 million from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India.

The credit facility was ostensibly taken for the development of overseas oil and gas assets in Mozambique, Brazil, and Indonesia, as per the ED.

The probe found a "systematic... diversion" of these funds, totalling USD 2.03 billion, by the Videocon Group promoters, layered through a complex web of overseas entities, it said.

The ED alleged Duggal was a "key beneficiary" of a calculated scheme through which funds from VIL were siphoned off and laundered through a chain of overseas entities.