Goyals 'Grounded' By Immigration From Travelling Abroad

Sunday,26 May 2019 07:48 AM IST

MUMBAI: Crisis-hit carrier Jet Airways' founder-Chairman Naresh Goyal and his wife Anitha were stopped from travelling abroad, at Mumbai airport. Both, Goyal and his wife, had boarded an Emirates flight from Mumbai to fly to Dubai, were offloaded on Saturday evening by immigration authorities.

The Emirates flight was forced to return to the bay by the immigration officials after it had already started taxiing.

Jet Airways, the largest carrier in India for a long time, had temporarily suspended operations on April 17, owing to huge financial crisis and debts. Since then, according to government officials, a lookout circular (LOC) has been issued against the Goyal by the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO), permitting public sector banks to prevent defaulters and fraudsters from fleeing the country.

The Boeing 777 aircraft, including Goyals and other 369 passengers on board, was all set for a departure from Mumbai airport at 4.14 pm. The air traffic control officials got a call from immigration authorities soon after it started taxiing, to come back to the bay area, around 4.19 pm

At 4.35 pm the plane docked into parking bay and told Goyals, who were seated in the second row of the first class cabin, to disembark.  The aircraft finally departed at 5.04 pm without Goyals and their check-in bags offloaded.

Sources said that the Goyals left the airport a few hours after the incident.

Jet Airways owes Rs 1,600 crore to State Bank of India whereas it owes over Rs 7,000 crore to other Indian banks. 22,000 employees have turned jobless, many pilots, engineers and other management staffs haven't been paid since December 2018.