Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 19: In the ICICI Bank-Videocon loan case, the Bombay High Court on Friday granted temporary bail to Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and PK Chavan issued the ruling. The court ordered that Dhoot be released after posting a one lakh rupee bail bond.
In a case involving Chanda Kochhar, the former CEO of ICICI Bank, and her husband Deepak Kochhar, Dhoot is one of the co-accused. The Central Bureau of Inquiry (CBI) detained him on December 26 for failing to cooperate with the investigation, among other things.
Kochhar and Dhoot were placed in judicial custody on December 29 by a special CBI court in Mumbai. Dhoot then went before the special court to contest his arrest.
On January 5, the special court denied Dhoot’s request, stating that it lacked the authority to review its own ruling remanding Dhoot to detention. Dhoot is upset about this, so he went to the High Court to challenge the CBI’s alleged ‘illegal arrest’ of him and ask for an urgent interim release on bail.
According to attorney Sandeep Ladda, Sections 41 and 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure were blatantly violated by Dhoot’s arrest, which was also arbitrary and unconstitutional.
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Ladda informed the court that Dhoot had been detained in connection with a money laundering investigation for which he had already been granted bail by the Special PMLA Court, which had noted his cooperation with the investigation.
Additionally, he claimed that Dhoot had appeared before CBI on his own on December 26 (the day he was arrested) despite failing to appear as instructed on December 24 and 25 of the previous year.
Ladda brought up the fact that Dhoot was absent on those occasions because he had been summoned by ED on the same days.
