India court orders Jet Airways founder to remain in custody until Sept. 11 (updated)

Jet Airways (India)

02/09/2023 17:55

(Updates with crime agency's official statement, paragraphs 3,
7 & 8; detail on Goyal paragraph 6)
       Sept 2 (Reuters) - An Indian court on Saturday decided
that Jet Airways  JET.NS  founder Naresh Goyal will remain in
India's financial crime agency's custody until Sept. 11, the
agency said in a press statement.
    The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which investigates
financial crimes in India, arrested Goyal late on Friday.
    Jet Airways did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Goyal hasn't commented publicly on the case in the
past. 
    The case relates to an alleged 5.38 billion Indian rupees
($65.06 million) bank fraud case filed by state lender Canara
Bank  CNBK.NS . The losses to a consortium of nine lenders is
much larger, at 59.6 billion Indian rupees ($720.78 million), ED
said. 
    The bank had filed a complaint in May against the airline,
Goyal, his wife and a former airline director for "causing
wrongful loss" to the lender.
    Goyal founded Jet Airways in 1992 but shut down operations
in April 2019 after running out of cash. The airline was the
second largest carrier in India by market share.  
    In its statement the agency said that under Goyal's
leadership the airline siphoned off funds to overseas entities 
in Dubai, Ireland and other tax havens including the British
Virgin Islands. 
    "(The) ED investigation revealed that in the garb of
professional and consultancy fees, funds to the tune of 10
billion Indian rupees ($120.94 million) went towards the
personal expenses of Naresh Goyal and his family members," the
statement said. 

($1 = 82.6887 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay and Aditya Kalra
Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Ros Russell)
 ((Jayshree.Pyasi@thomsonreuters.com; 9920092491; Reuters
Messaging: Twitter: @jaysh88))