Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot walks out of Mumbai's Arthur Road jail

Venugopal Dhoot. File Pic

Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot walked out of Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail on Friday evening, hours after he was granted interim bail by the Bombay High Court in a loan fraud case.

Dhoot was arrested on December 26 last year in the case, in which former ICICI Bank managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar have also been named as accused.

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

After getting interim bail from the court, his lawyers submitted the release order to the Arthur Road prison authorities, following which Dhoot was released, an official said.

The Bombay High Court, earlier in the day, granted him interim bail noting that the reason mentioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his arrest was "quite casual and without any substance".

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Stating that an investigating officer cannot arrest any accused as per his "whims and fancies", the HC also rapped the special court saying it did not make any "serious efforts" to scrutinise the remand application as well as the case diary.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan further noted there has been a calculated move by the CBI to "concoct non-attendance and non-cooperation" in the probe by Dhoot, but in face the material placed before the court demonstrated Dhoot's diligence and bona-fide.

The Kochhar couple was given bail on January 9. The central agency has alleged that the ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to these companies in violation of norms.

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