Months after Videocon got embroiled in a ‘quid pro quo’ controversy with ICICI Bank, the company’s chairman Venugopal Dhoot is being charged with corporate fraud in a separate two-year-old case, the TOI reported citing the chargesheet. The Economic Offenders Wing of the Delhi Police has charged Venugopal Doot with corporate fraud, the newspaper reported.
An FIR was filed two years ago in which allegations were made against Venugopal Doot by Sanjay Bhandari of Tirupati Ceramics. The police chargesheet claimed that there is sufficient evidence against the Videocon chief for the illegal sale of shares. Venugopal Doot allegedly sold 30 lakh shares of Tirupati, which has already been allotted to another person, a company. He did not disclose it to the board of directors.
Videocon Industries is also facing multi-agency preliminary investigation for a sweet deal allegedly involving husband of ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar. Besides, the company is also facing insolvency proceedings for failing for payback several bank loans. So far, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has accepted claims worth Rs 57,000 crore for recovery under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Lenders have also filed insolvency petitions against 13 Videocon subsidiaries to recover dues. By next month, the insolvency court is expected to take a decision. Videocon Industries reported a net loss of Rs 2,709 crore between January 2016 to March 2017.
The company’s woes are said to have started when the Supreme Court of India quashed all unified access services (UAS) licences granted to telecom companies. The company also claimed that its operations were hit due to demonetisation.
