Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested Naresh Goyal, founder of the grounded private airline, Jet Airways, after questioning him for several hours as part of its money-laundering investigation related to an alleged bank fraud of around Rs 538.62 crore.
Goyal was brought to Mumbai from Delhi by an ED team on Friday afternoon. Goyal was in Delhi to attend a court hearing related to a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office when an ED team asked him to accompany them to Mumbai for questioning, media reports said. He was placed under arrest at around 11 pm after being questioned for over six hours in the agency’s office in Worli.
He will be produced in the PMLA court on Sunday for remand by the agency. The agency had twice summoned him for questioning in the case earlier, but he had not allegedly appeared, citing certain emergencies, the reports said.
The ED’s money-laundering case is based upon a May 3 First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Jet Airways (India) Limited (JIL), Goyal, his wife Anita and former company executive Gaurang Ananda Shetty and unknown public servants and private persons in connection with the alleged fraud at Canara Bank. The agency had on July 19 carried out searches in connection with the case at seven locations in Mumbai and one location in Delhi.
The CBI registered its case based upon a complaint in November 2022 from Canara Bank, Mumbai. The case, registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, related to the alleged offences of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and criminal misconduct against the accused for causing the bank a loss of Rs 538.62 crore.
The bank alleged that it had sanctioned credit limits and loans to JIL to the tune of Rs 848.86 crore, of which Rs 538.62 crore was outstanding. The loan account was declared an alleged fraud in July 2021.
The bank had alleged that the forensic audit conducted in the accounts of Jet Airways (India) Ltd revealed alleged fraudulent features like diversion and siphoning of funds. It was also alleged that funds were diverted through Jet Lite (India) Limited. “As per the sample agreement of JIL, it was noted that the expenses of the General Sales Agents (GSA) were to be borne by GSA itself and not by JIL. However, it was observed that JIL has paid various expenses amounting to Rs 403.27 crore, which is not in tune with the GSA,” the bank’s complaint, which is a part of the CBI FIR, alleged.
It also alleged that personal expenses, including the staff salaries and phone bills of the Goyal family, were handled by the firm. The bank alleged that the accused’s transactions pointed towards cheating, misappropriation of funds by the borrower and siphoning of funds borrowed from the bank towards utilisation for purposes unrelated to the operations of the borrower, to the detriment of the financial health of the entity and/or the lender.
In February, the Bombay High Court had quashed a money-laundering case lodged by the ED against Goyal and his wife based on a Mumbai police case to probe charges of cheating and forgery on a complaint from Akbar Travels.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan had quashed the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report or the ED equivalent of an FIR) registered in February 2020 and all proceedings against the Goyals on the ground of “being illegal and contrary to law”. The court order came after the police filed a closure report, stating that they had found no substance in the complaint and the dispute seemed to be civil in nature.
