The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a fresh case of money laundering against Naresh Goyal, the former promoter of Jet Airways.
As part of the fresh money laundering case against Goyal and others, the ED also conducted searches on Wednesday, said a report by PTI citing official sources.
This move follows the ongoing probe y the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Goyal.
The ED raided six-seven premises in Mumbai and some other locations as part of the investigation being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In February, the Bombay high court quashed a money laundering case lodged by the ED against Goyal and his wife Anita on the basis of a Maharashtra Police FIR to probe charges of cheating and forgery on a complaint from Akbar Travels.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan quashed the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report or the ED equivalent of an FIR) registered on February 20, 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 found no substance in the complaint and the dispute seemed to be civil in nature. As the ED case was based on the police FIR and was the predicate offence for filing a money-laundering case, it was declared quashed by the court.
In May, the CBI conducted searches at Goyal’s seven locations in Mumbai which were associated with Jet Airways. The searches were conducted in connection with an alleged ₹538 crore fraud case in Canara Bank.
The CBI in its registered FIR has accused Jet Airways and its promoters of causing monetary losses to Canara Bank.
The bank alleged that the forensic audit of JIL showed that it paid ₹1,410.41 crore to “related companies” out of the total commission expenses, thus siphoning off funds from JIL.
“As per the sample agreement of Jet Airways (India) Ltd (JIL), it was noted that the expenses of General Selling Agents (GSA) was to be borne by GSA itself and nor by JIL. However, it was observed that JIL has paid various expenses amounting to ₹403.27 crore, which is not in tune with the GSA,” the complaint, which is now part of the CBI FIR, alleged.
(With inputs from PTI)
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