Venugopal Dhoot moves Bombay High Court for bail in Videocon-ICICI bank loan case; seeks quashing of FIR

Videocon Group chairman Venugopal Dhoot approached the Bombay High Court on Monday seeking quashing of the first information report (FIR) filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Videocon loan case..Dhoot also sought release on bail on the ground that his arrest was arbitrary and illegal.The petition filed by advocate Sandeep Ladda was mentioned on Monday afternoon before a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and PK Chavan which is likely to hear the petition tomorrow. The mentioning was made after the same bench had, in the morning, ordered interim release of former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar from judicial custody in relation to the same case. .Chanda is accused of cheating and irregularities in loan of ₹3,250 crore granted in 2012 to the Videocon Group.It was alleged that when Kochhar was at the helm of affairs at ICICI Bank, she cleared a loan for Videocon Group of Companies. As quid pro quo, her husband's company Nu Renewable allegedly received investment from Videocon.The loan later turned into a non performing asset (NPA) and was termed as bank fraud.A special CBI court in Mumbai had remanded Kochhar and Dhoot to judicial custody on December 29.Thereafter, Dhoot had approached the special court challenging his arrest.The special court rejected his application on January 5, opining that it does not have the power to review its own order remanding Dhoot to custody. .Aggrieved by the same, Dhoot approached the High Court. He pointed out that his arrest was in gross violation of Sections 41 and 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Dhoot raised the following grounds:He is a senior citizen suffering from serious ailments and having undergone multiple surgeries and hospitalisation in the last seven years; He is deeply rooted in India with no intention of absconding or evading arrest or obstructing CBI’s investigation;That conditions for arrest without warrant under Section 41 of CrPC have not been met; He appeared before CBI on his own and on their request to co-operate with the investigation;CBI failed to make out a case of his non co-operation to the investigation as a reason for his arrest; andCBI court has failed to carelessly and mechanically authorised the arrest which was carried out without necessary cause or reason.“The said illegal arrest is an abuse of process of law, bad in law, frivolous, baseless and deserves to be quashed and set aside,” Dhoot stated in his petition. Dhoot also pointed out that he had been arrested in the connected money laundering case where he had been granted bail by the High Court after observing that there were reasonable grounds to believe he was not guilty of offences alleged against him. .In view of these grounds, Dhoot prayed for quashing of all orders of the Mumbai Court remanding to custody.Dhoot also sought a declaration of his arrest as illegal and to release him on bail. Dhoot further sought quashing of the FIR registered by the CBI in 2019 in the case.