ICICI Bank loan case: CBI arrests Venugopal Dhoot

A holiday court remanded Dhoot in CBI’s custody till December 28. The court also extended the remand of Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak who were arrested on Friday by three days. The CBI sought a three-day custody to confront the accused.

The investigating officer told the court that the three were not cooperating and refused to appear together for questioning. “We summoned the three on December 15, asking the three to join the probe on December 19. However, none appeared, citing various reasons. Then, on December 22nd, Dhoot appeared and told us that he couldn’t be available on December 23 as he has to be before the Enforcement Directorate. The Kochhars appeared on the 23rd,” said the officer.

‘Rs 64-Crore Loan Never Repaid’

The CBI’s counsel A Limosin argued that the agency was left with no option but to arrest the accused “owing to non-cooperation”. “Dhoot has not been cooperating with the investigation and has been inconsistent in the statements. He has changed his version on several occasions during the course of investigation. He had not disclosed full and true facts of the case,” Limosin argued.

Meanwhile, the CBI’s probe has revealed that the Rs 64 crore loan given by Dhoot to Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables Ltd (NRL) was never repaid, said people aware of the matter.

“One of the points of confrontation between the three accused is the loan of Rs 64 crore given to Kochhar’s company by a Videocon group company. The Rs 300 crore loan availed by Dhoot from ICICI (Bank) was to take care of his other liabilities… it isn’t prudent to pay a part of the loan to somebody and never expect it to be paid back,” one of the persons told ET on condition of anonymity. “This is nothing but a quid pro quo arrangement and a classic case of bribery.”
According to sources, in September 2009, Videocon Industries Ltd (VIL) paid Rs 64 crore as advance to Supreme Energy Private Ltd (SEPL), a company linked to Dhoot. “In July 2011, it assigned this advance from SEPL to its group company Indian Refrigerator Company Ltd (IRCL). In August 2011, IRCL in turn assigned it to another company, Real Appliances Pvt Ltd (RAPL), which later changed its name to Real Cleantech Pvt Ltd (RCPL). The present status of RCPL is ‘struck off’ in Registrar of Companies records… even though the amount is still payable by SEPL to VIL group,” said the person.

SEPL was promoted and incorporated by Dhoot, but by 2012 it was owned by Deepak Kochhar.

“Investigation has revealed that accounting entities were made in the books of SEPL i.e creation of provisioning of Rs 32 lakh ( for Rs 64 crore transferred by VIL in NRL through SEPL) and its reversal follows the pattern of events in ICICI Bank pertaining to allegation/ inquiry against Chanda Kochhar,” said the person.


Inappropriate Prosecution Sanction

On Monday, the defence again raised the issue of the communique sent by ICICI Bank to the CBI while granting sanction to prosecute Chanda Kochhar.

According to defence lawyer Amit Desai, the letter dated July 9, 2021, states that “there was no wrongful loss caused to the bank” and that “the loans were sanctioned following due procedure and the loans under investigations are extinguished”. However, according to people privy to the CBI’s findings, after receiving the communique, the agency wrote to the bank on multiple occasions. The CBI asked for reissuance of the sanction letter, stating that the letter shouldn’t be a reason for not conducting a “fair investigation”. “The bank, however, did not heed the CBI’s repeated request and asked the agency to refer to the letter issued by the bank in July 2021 as its sanction to prosecute Chanda Kochhar,” said the person cited earlier.

A sanction to prosecute by a competent authority is required under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Besides cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, Chanda Kochhar has been booked under certain sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.