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Jet Airways owned by NRI,
Naresh Goyal- out of CBI air pocket
Jet Airways, the private domestic carrier that has been in and out of controversies over intelligence reports alleging dubious sources of funds, has got a reprieve. The CBI is reluctant to take up a formal investigation into the airline, saying there is no concrete evidence that would withstand judicial scrutiny. The government had decided to opt for a CBI probe into the airline’s funding after a task force headed by the revenue secretary submitted its conclusions. The task force felt that prima facie information appeared to cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the sources of funds invested by Naresh Goyal in Tailwinds Ltd/Jet Airways. According to government records, Jet Airways is owned by Tailwinds Ltd, which is fully owned by Naresh Goyal, a non-resident Indian. Jet Airways is registered on the Isle of Man and was given the licence to fly by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1993. In 1996, Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways sold their 20 per cent stake each in Jet Airways following civil aviation guidelines that barred shareholding by a foreign airline in the domestic sector. Following the task force report, the Union home secretary wrote to the CBI director to probe the sources of funds invested in Jet Airways by Goyal and whether the money was linked to the underworld. The bureau was also asked to obtain information from other security agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis Wing, the Enforcement Directorate and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to establish whether a formal investigation is warranted. But bureau officials said they have not come across any information with intelligence agencies that could be used as evidence against Goyal or his airline. The officials said they stumbled on information that raised eyebrows but not in the form that can be used as evidence in a court of law. The officials, however, conceded that they did not have the last word on the subject. “We can neither give a clean chit nor indict anyone on the basis of what was referred to us,” one of them said, pointing out that some politicians in the ruling UPA government were also reported to have an interest in the airline. If the government wants to pursue the investigation, a signed complaint can be referred to the bureau. “We are a police agency that has to function within a very narrow framework,” a CBI official said, suggesting that the government could ask agencies under the finance ministry to formally investigate the source of funds. The airline’s finances have been under the scanner of intelligence agencies for several years now. As disinvestment minister, Arun Shourie had also questioned the source
of its funds in Parliament in 2001. |
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