Former Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal were deplaned from a London-bound Emirates flight on Saturday evening as it was taxiing on the Mumbai airport’s runway, reports said. A senior airport official said they were prevented from leaving the country, but not detained, Mumbai Mirror reported.
“It began taxiing at 4.19 pm, but then, we received a call from immigration authorities asking us to call the aircraft back,” an air traffic control officer told The Times of India. “They said there was an immigration issue.”
City police commissioner Sanjay Barve confirmed the development but did not give any other details. “Yes, Mumbai police stopped them from leaving India,” Barve told Mumbai Mirror.
Meanwhile, Emirates said it was cooperating with the authorities.
In April, Kiran Pawaskar, president of the Jet Airways’ Officers and Staff Association, had asked the police commissioner to confiscate the passports of Naresh Goyal, Anita Goyal and the senior airline management to prevent them from leaving the country.
Naresh Goyal and Anita Goyal, who had founded the airline 26 years ago, had resigned from the board of directors in March as it struggled to fund its operations. The board had said that an interim panel would be set up to handle its affairs.
Over 22,000 employees of the airline have reportedly stopped receiving their payments since January, Mumbai Mirror reported.
The private airline, which has massive amounts of debt, said on April 17 that it had decided to temporarily suspend all domestic and international operations. The decision was taken after the carrier’s lenders, led by the State Bank of India, declined to provide it emergency funds.
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