Court junks ED plea seeking to intervene in case against Jet Airways

Mumbai: A Mumbai sessions court refused to allow an application by the Enforcement Directorate to be heard before the lower court decides on the closure report filed by the Mumbai police in a Jet Airways matter. The ED approached the sessions court after a lower court denied it relief in the matter last month. The federal agency has claimed that there was evidence the airline had laundered money and that it was not a mere case of business loss, as concluded by the police.

“Metropolitan magistrate rejected intervention application of ED. Against it this revision was filed, which is also dismissed by today’s order. In such circumstances, there is no question of granting any stay. Hence this application is rejected,” the sessions court said in its ruling. The ED is likely to challenge the order in the high court, people familiar with the matter said.

The ED is at loggerheads with the Mumbai police, which closed a cheating case against Jet Airways, its promoter Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita in June. The ED contended in its protest petition that the Mumbai police failed to probe the details of offshore accounts provided by the complainant, Akbar Travels of India. The federal agency said the local police even failed to record the statement of Naresh Goyal, which is a requisite of any criminal investigation.