The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim bail to Venugopal Dhoot, founder and former chairman of Videocon, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 26, 2022, in a loan fraud case linked to ICICI Bank.

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A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan granted bail to Dhoot on a surety of Rs one lakh. The court permitted him to furnish cash bail and then deposit the surety amount two weeks thereafter.

The bench also refused the CBI's request to stay its order so that it could approach the Supreme Court in appeal.

The court also dismissed an application filed by an advocate seeking to intervene in the matter and for the bench to recall its earlier order from January 9 granting bail to two other accused in the case — Chanda Kochhar, former managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar.

The bench imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the advocate.

Also read: Who is Venugopal Dhoot the industrialist arrested by CBI in ICICI bank loan fraud case?

According to the charges, Dhoot had allegedly invested crores of rupees in NuPower Renewables, a company founded by Deepak Kochhar, months after a Rs 3,250 crore ICICI bank loan was granted to the Videocon group in 2012. The CBI claims that Chanda Kochhar had abused her official position to sanction the loan to Dhoot.

Dhoot was seeking to quash an FIR registered against him in the case and declare his arrest as "arbitrary and illegal." The Bombay High Court on Tuesday had told the CBI to file an affidavit in response to Dhoot's petition.

Also read: Bombay High Court grants interim relief to Chanda and Deepak Kochhar — Here is how the case moved

In his plea, Dhoot termed his arrest by the 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, which mandates for a notice to be issued to accused to join the probe and to make an arrest only if absolutely necessary".

Dhoot's advocate Sandeep Laddha had argued that Dhoot's arrest was unwarranted as he had cooperated in the probe.

First Published:Jan 20, 2023 11:07 AM IST