The plea filed by Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a loan default case has been rejected by the Bombay High Court/
A division bench comprising of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Gauri Godse said that a plea seeking a writ of Habeas Corpus cannot be entertained by the Court in the case.
In a 35 page order, the bench stated that in the Naresh Goyal case, it would be wring to say that the remand orders are absolutely mechanical or suffer from the vice of lack of jurisdiction, warranting our interference in this writ petition, which seeks a writ of habeas corpus.
The bench said that the petition in the facts, cannot be entertained and dismiss the petition.
The court however added that the petitioner was allowed to avail of other statutory remedies, as permissible in law to him, vis-a-vis other prayers raised in this petition.
The Enforcement Directorate had provisionally attached properties worth Rs 538.05 crore linked to Jet Airways (India) Ltd and the family of its founder, Naresh Goyal, in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The national agency said in a statement that the attached properties included 17 residential flats, bungalows and commercial premises located in London, Dubai and various cities of India.
It said the properties were registered in the name of various companies such as Jetair Private Limited and Jet Enterprises Private Limited, apart from Naresh Goyal, his wife Anita and son Nivaan.
The national agency had submitted its charge sheet in the case registered against Goyal for alleged money laundering in a loan given to the airline.
The case filed by ED was based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May on a complaint lodged by Canara Bank in November 2022, alleging that the loan amount given for operational work of the airline company was used for personal expenses.
The complaint by Canara Bank was based on a forensic audit by an external audit company for the period between 2011-2019.
While the Canara Bank loan was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) in 2019, the ED claimed that the loan amount to the tune of Rs 538 crore was nothing but proceeds of crime, which had been diverted and siphoned off.
As per ED, the JIL had siphoned off loans from consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), including Canara Bank and PNB.
The national agency said that Goyal had implemented a massive financial fraud, in which the funds of JIL were systematically diverted in the garb of irrational and inflated General Sales Agent (GSA) commissions.
Large unexplained payouts were given to various professionals and consultants by granting of loans to JetLite Limited (a 100 percent subsidiary to acquire Air Sahara) and subsequently, the loans were written off by making provisions in the balance sheets, it added.
The probe by ED revealed that GSA commissions were wrongfully paid to Jet Air Private Limited (GSA of JIL for India), Jet Airways LLC Dubai (Global GSA of JIL) and JIL for the operational expenses of these GSAs.
Further, all these GSAs were beneficially owned by Naresh Goyal. Hence, the management of JIL toed the line for Goyal and kept on paying large sums of money on a regular basis, despite the fact that these entities were not performing any substantial service after 2009, it added.
The ED alleged that the funds so received were again used by Goyal and his family for their personal expenses and investments.