Naresh Goyal seeks discharge from money laundering case; court asks prosecution to reply to plea

Mumbai: Businessman and founder of now-defunct Jet Airways Naresh Goyal on Monday moved a plea before a special court in Mumbai, seeking discharge from a money laundering case, linked to alleged Rs 538.62 crore bank fraud, filed against him by the Enforcement Directorate.

The court set up under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) agreed to hear Goyal's plea on the condition he will not seek any adjournment during hearing and directed the prosecution to file its reply before adjourning the matter to August 17.

During the last hearing, the court had directed the 77-year-old businessman to appear before it on August 10 for framing of charges in the money laundering case against him.


It had then denied Goyal's request for further adjournment sought on the ground of filing a discharge application.

The matter is of 2023, but all these three years the accused has not taken any steps for filing an application seeking discharge in the case, the special PMLA court judge had remarked.

The businessman was arrested in September 2023 by the ED, which claimed he had laundered money, siphoning off loans given to Jet Airways by state-run Canara Bank to the tune of Rs 538.62 crore. He is currently out on a medical bail.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Jet Airways, Goyal, his wife Anita and some former executives of the now-grounded carrier in connection with the alleged bank fraud.

Discharge is a stage that comes after a chargesheet has been filed in a case, but before charges are framed by the court concerned against an accused. Under this legal remedy, an accused is entitled to be discharged from a case if the evidence provided to the court is not sufficient to prove the offence.