Naresh Goyal, wife denied permission to travel abroad

MUMBAI : Acting on a look out circular (LoC), the immigration authority on Saturday stopped former Jet Airway chairman Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita at the Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport. The couple were travelling to London in an Emirates flight.

“Naresh and his wife Anita Goyal travelling to London on EK 507 were restricted from leaving the country,” confirmed a senior executive at the Mumbai airport.

“The aircraft had reached taxiway when it was recalled and they were taken into custody by Immigration officers,” he added.


The cash-strapped Jet Airways, which stopped all operations on April 17 due to financial distress, is being probed by multiple agencies including the corporate affairs ministry and the income-tax department for alleged irregularities.

The Enforcement Directorate, is probing the airline’s sale of 50.1% of its loyalty rewards programme Jet Privilege Pvt Ltd. to Etihad Senior executives of the beleaguered airlines were recently questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with foreign investment in the airlines loyalty programme.

The Mumbai regional office of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had recently submitted a report concluding that a detailed investigation is required into alleged irregular transactions by the airline. The oversight committee of the MCA is yet to finalise on if the probe should be carried by its investigation wing, the SFIO or handed over to a senior officer in MCA.

Jet’s lenders ran a bid process to get it a new investor, but only Etihad Airways which owns 24% came up with a highly conditional bid by the end of it.

The search for a majority investor have now brought the lenders and Etihad to the Hinduja Group. The conglomerate has shown an interest in Jet but no final decision has been made yet.

The government has, meanwhile allocated a chunk Jet’s key flight slots to rival carriers. Some of the planes in its fleet, deregistered due to prolonged default on lease rentals, have been leased out to peer carriers.