Naresh Goyal, wife seek cancellation of LOC, return of passports

Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita have approached the Bombay High Court seeking cancellation of the Look Out Circular issued against them for an alleged money laundering case. They have also sought the return of their passports and permission to travel abroad as the HC has quashed the ECIR filed by the Enforcement Directorate. The HC posted the hearing on Tuesday.

Mumbai: Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal have approached the Bombay high court with an application seeking cancellation of the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against them for an alleged money laundering case as they have cooperated in the investigation of the matter.

HT Image

The couple has also sought the return of their passports and permission to travel abroad as the HC has quashed the ECIR filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The HC posted the hearing on Tuesday.

As per the application, after being deboarded from a flight in 2019, based on the LOC issued at the instance of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Serious Fraud Investigation Office, ED and State Bank of India, they joined the investigation from May 2019 till August 2020. It added that after August 2020, they were not called by any of the authorities.

“In 2021, the Mumbai Police filed a closure report in the cheating case against them and the court concerned accepted the closure report and closed the case, despite ED opposing the closure,” states the application.

Given the closure of the predicate offence, a petition was filed in 2022 in the HC seeking the quashing of the ECIR. Senior advocates Ravi Kadam and Aabad Ponda represented the Goyals. The HC through an order of February 23, 2023, quashed the ECIR.

In light of this, the application added that as the petitioner is 74 years old and a senior citizen as well as would like to spend time with his family, the HC should quash and set aside the LOC against the couple for the purpose of issuing the same was served.

In the FIR registered on the complaint of Akbar Travels, it was claimed that it had suffered losses of over ₹46 crore after Jet Airways began cancelling flight operations in October 2018. The police had booked the Goyals on charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery.

Thereafter, in March 2020, the police filed a C-summary report stating that the dispute was civil and it had not found any substance in the criminal complaint, hence the investigation against Jet Airways and the Goyals was being closed. The metropolitan magistrate court accepted the closure report in December 2020 after which Akbar Travels filed a criminal revision application in the sessions court.

Though the revision application had claimed that the police had not carried out a thorough investigation and had failed to gather incriminating evidence and the investigation had been closed in 19 days, the sessions court dismissed the application in August 2021.