A special court here has allowed Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, arrested in a money laundering case linked to an alleged Rs 538 crore fraud at Canara Bank, to undergo gastro and colonoscopy procedure at a private hospital in Mumbai.
Goyal had on Tuesday moved the special court hearing matters pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), saying he had been advised to undergo the procedure that allows a doctor to visually examine the interior of a person’s body.
The medical imaging technique is used to diagnose diseases in different parts of the body.
Special Judge M G Deshpande on Wednesday permitted Goyal, who is lodged in the Arthur Road jail in central Mumbai, to undergo gastro and colonoscopy in the hospital of Muffazal Lakdawala (Goyal’s doctor) for two days.
The superintendent of Arthur Road jail shall arrange sufficient escort at the expenses of the applicant (Goyal), the court said.
Goyal and his advocate on record shall inform the date of Goyal’s admission in the hospital well in advance to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), it added.
The promoter of the now-defunct private airline has sought to be taken to the hospital on January 26.
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The 74-year-old businessman, in jail for more than four months, was recently permitted by the court to undergo a slew of medical tests at a private hospital here.
The court on January 10 had allowed Goyal to meet his ailing wife on humanitarian grounds. The nod came days after Goyal told the court that he had “lost every hope of life and it would be “better if he died in jail” than living in such a situation.
Goyal was arrested in September 2023 by the ED, which claimed he had laundered money, siphoning off loans of Rs 538.62 crore given to Jet Airways by Canara Bank.
The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Jet Airways, Goyal, his wife Anita and some former executives of the now-grounded carrier in connection with the alleged bank fraud.
