In a setback to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Bombay high court on Thursday quashed its enforcement case information report (ECIR) against Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and his wife, Anita, in a money laundering case.
A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and PK Chavan quashed the three-year-old ECIR, the investigation and all the proceedings and actions against the Goyals, who had sought the quashing.
In January, the same bench had restrained the ED from taking any coercive steps against the Goyal couple while hearing their plea.
The ECIR against the Goyals was registered on the basis of a first information report lodged by the Mumbai Police in February 2020 on a complaint filed by Akbar Travels. The travel agency had alleged that it suffered a loss of over `46 crore after the airline cancelled flights.
In March 2020, the police had filed a closure report concluding that it had not found any substance in the criminal complaint and the dispute seemed to be civil in nature. This was also accepted by a metropolitan magistrate court and was upheld by the Supreme Court.
