Mumbai: India’s top investigating agency arrested the founder of Videocon Group Venugopal Dhoot, after it arrested Chanda Kochhar, a former chief executive officer at ICICI Bank Ltd., and her husband Deepak Kochhar on charges related to alleged improper lending.
Dhoot was called in for questioning and arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, according to his lawyer Sandeep S. Ladda. He was produced before a special CBI court in Mumbai on Monday where the investigators were granted custody, Ladda said.
The CBI sought custody of Dhoot on grounds that he did not disclose the full facts of the case and needed to be questioned along with the Kochhars. Dhoot argued that he had cooperated in the investigation and custody wasn’t needed, his lawyer added.
An email to the CBI seeking comments outside of office hours went unanswered.
The arrests follow the CBI’s charge that ICICI “- under Kochhar’s watch”- sanctioned loans to companies belonging to businessman Dhoot’s Videocon Group in a violation of rules. Following the approval of one such advance, Dhoot invested Rs640 million ($7.7 million) in a company owned by Kochhar’s husband. Some of the loans to Videocon later became delinquent, according to the CBI.
