The 71-year-old was held after brief questioning by officers who said they would soon be filing charges against him and the Kochhars.
Here’s a look at Dhoot’s journey from becoming a billionaire to ending up in prison.
Get up, then fall
Born on September 30, 1951, Venugopal Dhoot graduated in Electrical Engineering from Pune University and soon joined forces with his father Nandlal Madhavlal Dhoot who founded Videocon in 1985. Under the leadership of Venugopal Dhoot, the company quickly established itself in the market and became one of the first brands to introduce color televisions in the country.
At its peak, Videocon had multiple manufacturing facilities across India and set up factories in other countries such as China, Mexico, Poland and Italy. Following its success in the electronics sector, the group ventured into the telecommunications, oil and energy sectors. In 2015, Forbes magazine ranked Dhoot as the 61st richest person in India and estimated his fortune at around US$1.19 billion. The industrialist, who is said to be a cricket fan, even tried to buy the now-defunct Pune team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2010.
However, the group ran into trouble in the mid-2010s as its financial woes led to an exit from the telecoms sector by 2017 and its dominance in the consumer durables sector waned as major international competition came into play.
The allegations against Dhoot
According to the CBI, Dhoot gave bribes to Chanda Kochhar and her family to get loans for his videocon group. He reportedly invested Rs.64 billion in Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables through a variety of shell companies, just months after receiving a Rs.3,250 billion loan from the bank between 2010 and 2012 when it was run by Chanda Kochhar . Most of the amount loaned to Videocon turned into non-performing assets (NPAs).
The agency also alleged that Chanda Kochhar played a key role in granting these loans and abused her official position. Although Kochhar denied all allegations, she was forced to resign as managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank in 2018.
A year later, CBI filed an FIR against the Kochhars, Dhoot and companies such as Nupower Renewables and Videocon Industries for allegedly defrauding ICICI Bank of Rs 1,730 crore. The complaint was filed under the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and read: “The defendant (Chanda Kochhar) sanctioned certain loans to private companies in a criminal conspiracy with other defendants to ICICI Bank”. It also named Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd, Videocon International Electronics Ltd (VIEL) and unknown officials as the accused.
A CBI court has awarded the Central Authority custody of Venugopal Dhoot until December 28 in the matter.