The Bombay high court on June 21, 2007, directed the city police commissioner to give a report on the alleged underworld connection of Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal.
A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari has asked the police commissioner to file his reply within four weeks to the allegation in a public interest litigation.
The PIL filed by a social activist M Furquan alleged that Goyal had links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel and this nexus could hamper national security.
On getting reply from the Mumbai police commissioner, the court will decide if a Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry is required in the matter, the petitioner's lawyer K T Thomas said.
Jet Airways is alleged to have been funded by the fugitives, Thomas said.
This is the third time the petitioner has filed such a PIL against Goyal.
A Jet Airways spokesperson later said: "We have so far not received any intimation from any quarter of any proceeding or any proceeding that may have passed."
The high court had dismissed the petitioner's application last October holding that he had not filed a police complaint.
Last December, the high court had dismissed for the second time the same PIL on grounds that the investigating agency had not been given sufficient time to enquire and granted leave to file a fresh appeal if action was not taken on the petitioner's complaint.
Considering the seriousness of the issue, the court has given this order as action has still not been taken, Thomas said. It was also brought to the court's notice that the Intelligence Bureau had filed a report on Goyal's alleged nexus, he claimed.
Jet Airways, has been in and out of controversies over intelligence reports alleging dubious sources of funds.
The CBI is reluctant to take up a formal investigation into the airline, saying there is no concrete evidence that would withstand judicial scrutiny, though a shadow of doubt has always remained and in private CBI agrees that all is not clean the way Jet's funding has been done. In fact industry players are certain about Goyal's link with underworld based out of Dubai, Malaysia, and even Pakistan.
The government had earlier 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 license to fly by the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1993 with allegations that cash was exchanged for the favor granted.
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. How and from where the Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways share was purchased has always remained a mystery.
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 that would stand scrutiny in a court of law against Goyal or his airline.
The officials said they stumbled on information that raised eyebrows and created sufficient doubt 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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