‘Jet Airways founder should have acted sooner’, Capt GR Gopinath on ₹538 crore fraud case

Air Deccan Founder Captain GR Gopinath on Saturday said that Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, who was sent to 14-day judicial custody in a ₹538 crore bank fraud case, should have taken a timely decision to bring inequity before it was too late.

He also said that the government must always save the airline because of jobs and infrastructure, according to a report published by the news agency ANI.

Speaking to media persons, Gopinath said, “He (Naresh Goyal) had made the country proud as an airline, but unfortunately, I think he should have sensed that the problem was coming and taken a timely decision to bring inequity before it was too late.”

“But I think the governments must always save the airline. If the promoter has committed fraud, you can separate it and investigate and prosecute, but you must save the airline because you save jobs, you save infrastructure,” he asserted.

“And also when the airline is saved, there will be competition. So I think it is sad that the airline was not saved. You should not punish the airline and the employees for the mistakes of the promoter,” Gopinath added.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Goyal on 1 September under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following a long session of questioning at the central agency's office in Mumbai. 

The 74-year-old businessman was produced before the court at the end of his ED remand on Thursday. Goyal was sent to judicial custody by the court as no further remand was sought by the probe agency.

Jet Airways founder, 78, has been arrested in an alleged ₹538 crore bank fraud case, siphoning off funds from India to overseas by creating various trusts and using them to buy properties. Goyal did a fraud of ₹538 crore at state-run Canara Bank. 

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 company executives in connection with an alleged ₹538-crore fraud case at Canara Bank. 

The FIR was registered on the government lender's complaint which alleged it sanctioned credit limits and loans to Jet Airways (India) Ltd to the tune of ₹848.86 crore of which ₹538.62 crore was outstanding.

(With ANI inputs)