Bombay High Court rejects ED complaint against Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal in money laundering case

The Bombay High Court on February 23 quashed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal in a money laundering case, according to a Bar and Bench report.

The High Court’s division bench dismissed the ECIR lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on February 20, 2020, terming it illegal and contrary to the law, the report said.

Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita had sought the quashing of the ECIR registered on the basis of a first information report (FIR) lodged by the Mumbai Police in February 2020 on a complaint filed by Akbar Travels. The FIR booked Naresh and Anita Goyal under offences of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery of the Indian Penal Code.

The travel agent alleged that it suffered a loss of over Rs 46 crore after Jet Airways cancelled flight operations in October 2018.

According to the Bar and Bench report, the police had on March 20 filed a closure report concluding there was no substance in the criminal complaint and that the issue seemed civil in nature. A Metropolitan Magistrate Court too accepted the decision and it was also upheld by the Supreme Court.

ED’s counsel, meanwhile, argued that the ECIR cannot be quashed since it is an internal document unlike a FIR.

In January this year, the Bombay High Court ordered that no coercive action is to be taken against the Goyals. On February 22, ED opposed the plea arguing that the ECIR could not be quashed as it was an ‘internal, private piece of paper’ which could not be considered a statutory document.

However, the Court was not impressed with the submission and had queried on February 22 what would survive if the scheduled offence which formed the basis for registering an ECIR had been closed.

The hearing had been adjourned to February 23 (today) after the Court asked ED whether it could quash an ECIR or not, especially in light of the statement made by the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in Supreme Court in another case after acceptance of the closure report in predicate offence, an ECIR by ED would not survive.