ICICI loan fraud case: After Kocchars, CBI arrests Videocon CEO Venugopal Dhoot

The Central Bureau of Investigation today arrested Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman of the Videocon Group in the ICICI loan case. This development comes three days after former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were arrested by the CBI in a case linked to alleged irregularities in a loan given to the Videocon Group during her tenure.

A CBI official related to probe told The New Indian, “Yes, Dhoot has been arrested in the case.”

The official said that Dhoot will be produced before the court.  The CBI will also seek to extend the custody of Kochhars which ends on Monday.

The CBI had named the Kochhars and Dhoot, along with 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.

It is alleged that the accused sanctioned certain loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with other accused to cheat the ICICI Bank.

It is alleged that Videocon promoter Dhoot invested crores of rupees in Nupower months after the group received a loan of ₹3,250 crore from ICICI Bank in 2012.

Six months after his group received the Rs 3,250 crore loan, Dhoot gave a loan of Rs 64 crores to NuPower Renewables, a company founded by Chanda’s husband Deepak.

The CBI had said the money was part of a loan of Rs 40,000 crores that Videocon received from a consortium of 20 banks led by the State Bank of India.

The CBI registered a case in January 2019, 10 months after it registered a preliminary inquiry.

Chanda was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the same case in 2021. As the investigation into the multi-crore scam began, she was forced to resign from her position at ICICI Bank. She had denied all the charges against her and her husband.

Chanda spent more than three decades working for India’s third-largest lender and rose through the ranks to become one of the most powerful woman bankers.