The Special Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) court on Saturday granted the Enforcement Directorate custody of former Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal till September 11. Goyal was arrested after an exhaustive eight-hour interrogation on Friday, in connection with the Canara Bank fraud case, involving a staggering sum of Rs 538 crore. In July, the ED had begun fresh investigations against Goyal in the money laundering case, conducting searches at multiple locations, including Mumbai.

Goyal was presented in court on Saturday, with the ED requesting maximum custody. In their remand application, the ED laid out details of the case, stating that an FIR had been filed by the CBI in May this year, following a complaint by Canara Bank. It was alleged that M/s. Jet Airways (India) Ltd., in connivance with other accused individuals, including Goyal, had cheated the bank by diverting bank funds through its subsidiaries, fabricating expenses, including personal ones, ultimately resulting in a loss of Rs 538.62 crores for the bank.

The ED referenced a statement made by Vinay Garodia, an audit partner at Ernst and Young, the firm that conducted the forensic audit upon. Garodia’s statement to the ED highlighted certain emails that suggested that salary and operational expenses of M/s Filmstoc Pvt Ltd., a production house owned by Namrata Goyal (daughter of Goyal), were potentially funded by M/s. JIL. Additionally, other emails indicated that salary expenses for residential staff at Goyal’s residences in Mumbai and Delhi might have been shouldered by M/s. JIL.

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The remand application went on to state that during Goyal’s tenure as chairman of Jet Airways, the company (JIL) had diverted funds by providing advances to Jet Lite Limited (JLL), a subsidiary of JIL, amounting to Rs 2,547.83 crore, and subsequently writing off the same through provisions. The ED also cited the statement of Amit Agarwal, ex-CFO of M/S JIL, who stated that payments to some of the suspect consultancy and professional firms were approved directly by the secretary of Goyal, Jenifer D’Silva. 

The ED stated that during questioning, Goyal had been evasive in his responses and had failed to appear on August 17 and 30, when summons were issued to him.  Goyal’s lawyers, Aabad Ponda and Amit Naik, told the court that upon receiving the first summons, Goyal had sought to appear with a representative due to health reasons. On the day of the second summons, his wife was undergoing chemotherapy.  After hearing the arguments, the court decided to grant ED Goyal’s custody till September 11.

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