Another blow to Jet Airways: ED seizes Goyal's 538 crore assets

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized assets worth Rs 538 crore belonging to the company and its founder Naresh Goyal, putting Jet Airways in a tailspin as it tries to make a comeback. The action is in a money laundering case. This will also include foreign assets.

Goyal, who was arrested in September, is in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. A charge sheet was filed against Goyal and five others the other day.

There was a default of Rs 538.62 crore from the Rs 848 crore loan borrowed from a consortium of banks including SBI, Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank. The properties are in the name of Naresh Goyal, his wife Anita Goyal and their Nivan Goyal and companies Jet Air Pvt Ltd and Jet Enterprises Pvt Ltd. Among the assets seized were 17 flats, bungalows and commercial buildings in India, London and Dubai.

Goyal's lawyers had argued in court that a substantial amount of the loan was used to buy Sahara Airlines but the court accused Goyal of not disclosing full details of bank accounts and assets in India and abroad.

Loan money was used to buy properties

• Properties, furniture, clothes and jewellery were purchased in the name of 19 trusts established in India and abroad using the loaned money.
• The loan taken in the name of Jet Airways was given as a loan to Jet Light Limited, which was formed to take over Sahara Airlines. The balance sheet was falsified and the loan was written off.
• It was shown that consultants and agents were paid for the General Sales Agent (GSA) commission. Money was paid to Goyal's own firms which did not perform any significant service since 2009, in the name of agencies.

Jet Airways:

• Started as a low-cost airline company in 1995.
• In 2007, it took over Air Sahara and progressed.
• The service was stopped in April 2019 due to the financial crisis. Naresh Goyal resigned from the Board of Directors.
• Carlock took over the company for a comeback, but the process is dragging due to the case and debt.

East West Airlines and Jet Airways

The death of Thakiyudeen Abdul Wahid, managing director of East West Airlines, a native of Thiruvananthapuram Varkala Edava (Odayam), who had risen to the top in the aviation industry, was a shocking incident in the Indian industry. Jet Airways and East-West Airlines were companies that started during the era of globalization that saw a big change in the aviation industry.

Jet Airways's owner, Naresh Goyal, and East West's owner, Thakiyudeen, did not have much of a business background, but both were accomplished entrepreneurs. East West was ruined after Thakiyudeen's sudden assassination, but Jet Airways has been on a massive upswing since then.

The motive behind Thakiyudeen's murder was to destroy East-West Airlines. When the question of who did the murder with the help of the Mumbai underworld was asked that day, many names came up. Naresh Goyal was one of the most accused names. However, the investigation of that case did not progress much. Thakiyudeen's assassination was on November 13, 1995.