CBI arrests Videocon company chairman Venugopal Dhoot in a loan scam case
Chanda Kochhar, a former ICICI Bank MD and CEO, and her husband Deepak Kochhar were detained by the CBI on Friday for allegedly defrauding the bank of Rs. 1,730 crores from March 2012 to the present.
The Central Bureau of Investigation detained Venugopal Dhoot today in connection with the ICICI loan issue. He is the chairman of the Videocon Group. This occurs just days after the CBI detained Chanda Kochhar, the former CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar in connection with alleged irregularities in a loan of more than 3,000 crore given to the Videocon Group while she was in charge of the private sector bank.
Following their presentation in a Mumbai court, the Kochhars are currently being questioned.
The Kochhars and Mr. Dhoot were listed as defendants by the CBI in the FIR filed in 2019 under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC sections connected to criminal conspiracy, together with Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd., and Videocon Industries Limited.
Venugopal Dhoot reportedly invested 64 crores in NuPower Renewables in exchange for something, according to the allegations in the case, months after the Videocon firm received the loan from the bank between 2010 and 2012.
The CBI asserts that a committee Ms. Kochhar was a member of approved the loan. According to the organisation, she exploited her position and “received illicit gratification/undue gain through her husband from Dhoot for sanctioning 300 crore to Videocon.”
It was a portion of a loan worth 40,000 crore that Videocon obtained from a group of 20 banks, led by the State Bank of India.
Allegations that Chanda Kochhar, 59, favoured the Videocon Group, a consumer electronics and oil and gas exploration company, led to her resignation as CEO and managing director of ICICI Bank in October 2018.
A year later, ICICI declared that Ms. Kochhar’s firing would be considered “termination for cause,” claiming that she had broken the bank’s code of conduct and internal standards.
According to the CBI, ICICI Bank granted credit facilities totalling 3,250 crores to the Videocon Group entities that Mr. Dhoot promoted in violation of the Banking Regulation Act, RBI norms, and the bank’s credit policy.
Any impropriety has been refuted by Chanda Kochhar.