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PMLA court extends Naresh Goyal’s ED custody to Sept 14
The special PMLA court in Mumbai has extended the custody of Naresh Goyal, founder of Jet Airways, until September 14 in a money laundering case. Goyal has been accused of a ₹538 crore loan fraud. The Enforcement Directorate sought custody extension, stating that Goyal had created trusts abroad to purchase immovable properties overseas with money siphoned off from India. Goyal's lawyer argued that the loans were not money laundering and were taken during an economic crisis. Goyal also pleaded for medical attention and permission to speak to his ailing wife.
MUMBAI: The special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court on Monday extended the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of Naresh Goyal, founder of the grounded airline Jet Airways, upto September 14. Goyal, 74, has been arrested by the agency in connection with the money laundering probe into a ₹538 crore alleged loan fraud.
Goyal was produced before the special PMLA court on Monday, as his earlier ED custody remand ended. The agency sought his custody for four more days saying that the accused had created various trusts abroad through which he purchased various immovable properties overseas. The money for those trusts constitutes Proceeds of Crime (PoC) siphoned off from India, the court said.
The agency contended that Goyal had remained non-cooperative and kept blaming other persons. “Goyal kept on giving contrary statements to the facts as ascertained from various minutes of meetings. The information and documents pertaining to different agreements and trusts (Indian and foreign) are being gathered from various associates of Naresh Goyal as named by him and the same has to be confronted. Further, the persons possessing such information are also required to be confronted,” ED contended in its plea.
The plea was objected by Goyal’s lawyer, senior advocates Amit Desai and Amit Naik, who contended that, “Aviation sector runs on the funding of banks. The loans cannot be termed as laundering. There was a crisis in the economy, that is why we were unable to pay.” It was also contended that significant loans were taken to acquire Sahara by Jet Lite, which Desai claimed was a historic event.
Later, Goyal, with tears in his eyes, informed the court that his health condition was very poor and that he “cried whole night and could die because of this situation. I cannot bear this pain.” Goyal said his entire body was aching and he could not move his shoulder, knees, and asked the court to shift him to a private hospital and also sought permission to speak to his ailing wife twice a day.
After hearing both the sides, special judge MG Deshpande extended Goyal’s ED custody till September 14.
“Various statements and material collected during the previous ED custody remand revealed that the accused has created various Trusts abroad and through those Trusts he purchased various immovable properties. The money for those Trusts is nothing but the POC siphoned off from India to abroad. He did not provide those details but referred to one Dilip Thakkar, whom the ED proposes to examine and confront with the accused,” said the special court.
The court further said, “Investigation further revealed that accused had purchased high value properties in Mumbai and subsequently sold the same. The accused formed a web of the companies in India through which he has acquired lot of immovable properties. The source thereof is having nexus with PoC. All this prima-facie indicates that there is remarkable progress in the investigation undertaken by the ED.”
The court allowed the 74-year-old to carry his regular medicines with him and also asked ED to arrange a phone call to his wife once in the morning and evening for 15 minutes each in the presence of an ED officer. The court also directed ED to provide proper bedding and pillow to the accused as well as home-cooked food. Goyal was also allowed to meet one or two of his family members for an hour every day.
