Videocon founder Venugopal Dhoot walks out of jail after getting interim bail

Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot was released from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail on Friday (January 20) 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.

An official release said that the businessman was released after his lawyers submitted the release order to the Arthur Road prison authorities following the court’s bail order.

Earlier in the day, the Bombay High Court, granted him interim bail, noting that the reason mentioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation for his arrest was “quite casual and without any substance”.

Also read: Loan fraud case: Kochhars, Venugopal Dhoot under judicial custody till Jan 10

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.

(With inputs from agencies)