The lawyer of Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot argued before the Bombay High Court that the industrialist's arrest in the ICICI Bank loan fraud case was unwarranted as he was cooperating with the probe. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on the other hand, claimed that he was trying to avoid probe.
Dhoot, arrested by the CBI on December 26, 2022, and presently in judicial custody, has moved the high court seeking to quash the First Information Report, and has also sought interim bail.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan after hearing both Dhoot's lawyer Sandeep Laddha and CBI's counsel Raja Thakare reserved its order on interim relief.
Advocate Laddha argued that Dhoot had appeared before the CBI 31 times since a `preliminary enquiry' (PE) was registered in December 2017.
Dhoot was never arrested in the case. Even when the charge sheet was filed, Dhoot had appeared before the concerned court which granted him bail noting that he had been co-operating with the probe, the lawyer said.
Dhoot had appeared before the CBI twice even last month, he said. On two other dates (December 23 and 25) he could not appear as on December 23 he had been already summoned by the Enforcement Directorate, the lawyer said.
The CBI is holding this non-appearance for two days as non-co-operation. On December 25, the CBI issued Dhoot a notice he appeared on December 26 and was arrested, advocate Laddha said.
CBI counsel Raja Thakare said Dhoot was summoned in December 2022 so as to confront him with co-accused Chanda Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank; and her husband Deepak Kochhar, both of whom were arrested on December 23.
There has been a systematic attempt by Dhoot and the Kochhars to avoid probe. It is a case of conspiracy. When they are outside (not arrested) they decide the precise answers to give. But the moment one person is arrested, the blame game starts and they start pointing fingers at each other, Thakare said.
He added that the CBI wanted to bring the three accused together for interrogation. Despite being summoned, he (Dhoot) refused to appear. The CBI at the time had Kochhars' custody for a brief time and hence wanted to confront them with Dhoot, Thakare said.