Mumbai: In a major setback for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a local court has refused to allow its intervention application to be heard before the court decides on the closure report filed by Mumbai Police in the Jet Airways matter. The two law enforcement agencies are at loggerheads after the city police in June this year closed a cheating case against Jet Airways, promoter Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita.In a first, following the Mumbai Police clean chit, ED filed a protest petition before a local court, faulting the investigation and stating that the city police failed to look into details of offshore accounts provided by the complainant, Akbar Travels of India Pvt Ltd (ATIPL). ED also claimed there was evidence of money laundering and that it was not simply a case of business loss, as concluded by the police. The agency asserted that Mumbai Police failed to even record a statement of the accused, Naresh Goyal, which is a requisite in any criminal investigation. It was imperative that Goyal was confronted with all the allegations the specific facts like bank accounts in foreign countries,” it added. ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar argued that since the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is an evolving law, the scope of definition of ‘victim’ should be widened to include other ‘stakeholders’ who have an interest in the case.
On the issue of locus standi — the right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court — Venegaonkar said ED is conducting a parallel probe permitted by the statute to investigate a subsequent offence stemming from the preliminary offence. Sources say the agency is likely to appeal against the lower court.
