Bombay HC dismisses Naresh Goyal's plea against 'illegal' arrest by ED

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal challenging his illegal arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to bank loan defaultA division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse said the petition cannot be entertained and hence is dismissedThe court said it was open for Goyal to avail other statutory remedy like bail pleaGoyal had filed a habeas corpus produce the person petition in which he claimed he was illegally arrested by the ED in the caseIn his plea Goyal claimed his arrest was illegal as it was done without following provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLAHe also challenged orders of a special court which had first remanded him in the EDs custody and thereafter in judicial custodyThe ED opposed the plea and said the arrest was done after following the due process of lawGoyals custody was required as he was evasive and not cooperating with the probe it saidThe agency in its affidavit also said the petition filed by Goyal was totally iquestfalse frivolous vexatious bad in law and filed with an ulterior motiveThe plea was merely an instrument to evade and escape the legal custody the ED addedGoyal is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai in the money laundering case linked to an alleged fraud of Rs 538 crore at the Canara BankHe was arrested by the ED on September 1 and produced before a special court which remanded him the agencys custody till September 14On September 14 Goyal was remanded to judicial custody for two weeksGoyal in the plea claimed his arrest was arbitrary unwarranted and done without the ED following proper procedure He sought to be released immediatelyThe 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 of the now grounded private airline in connection with the alleged Rs 538 crore fraud case at the Canara BankThe FIR was registered on the banks complaint which alleged that it sanctioned credit limits and loans to Jet Airways India Ltd to the tune of Rs 84886 crore of which Rs 53862 crore was outstandingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever