Videocon’s employees claim they were cheated out of 22 months of salaries by Dhoot

• Employees at two of its factories are waiting for salaries of 22 months, says a report.
  
• Banks and other creditors might lose ₹90,000 crore as Videocon Group files bankruptcy
  
• The management tricked them by promising salaries even when the Kolkata based factories officially closed in early 2017, claimed employees.
  

Banks and other creditors might be staring at a gaping hole of ₹90,000 crore that Videocon Group owes as it turned insolvent in April this year. But, that is not all just what the Venugopal Dhoot-led group has defaulted on.

Employees at two of its factories are waiting for salaries of 22 months, says a report by Business Today. They claim that they were duped by Dhoot’s false promises.

According to the employees of its subsidiary KAIL, the management tricked them by promising salaries even when the Kolkata based factories officially closed in early 2017.

Employees claim that Dhoot was well aware of the company’s state of affairs even before it went in for bankruptcy this year. As the situation worsened, the employees were hoping to get a solution for the outstanding salary in a meeting on 3 July. The meeting never happened.

The management completely avoided the issue of rising salary dues, a former employee Gangadhar Chakraborty told BT.

Videocon Industries which has interests across electronics and home appliances, along with their unsuccessful telecom venture had run up heavy debts. Last year, SBI, their largest creditor, claimed that all the three Dhoot brothers — Venugopal, Pradipkumar and Rajkumar Dhoot — have defaulted on their loans.

After that, The National Law Appellate approached the National Company Law Tribunal to pass an order the bankruptcy proceedings of the company earlier this year. This is among the biggest bankruptcies of the country.

In all, the diverse group owes as many as 730 operational creditors which also include vendors and others they have to pay, apart from banks.


Dubious Loans
Apart from how much they owe to banks, Videocon is also in trouble for how they got them. Venugopal Dhoot is also involved in a case of influencing Chanda Kochhar, the former CEO of ICICI Bank to sanction a loans in exchange of favours.

A firm run by her husband Deepak Kocchar, NuPower Renewables and Supreme Energy received a deal in exchange for a ₹3,250 crore loan he got in 2012. The case is now being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.

In the meanwhile, a panel led by Justice BN Srikrishna found that the actions were against the bank’s code of conduct. And, not only did Chanda lose her job, she was asked to return all the bonuses received between 2009 and 2018.