The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has disclosed a significant irregularity involving Jet Airways (India) Ltd (JIL). According to the ED's chargesheet, some senior employees of the airline had their salaries paid by an unusual source—a firm dealing in botanical products, mosquito coils, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
According to TOI, the firm in question, identified as S A Sangani & Associates, allegedly disbursed a staggering sum of Rs 40.48 crore as salaries to the senior management of Jet Airways.
The firm began payroll processing April 2018 onwards though it was not incorporated until June 13, 2018. No expenses were recorded in the profit and loss account of the firm, said the ED chargesheet.
For additional confidentiality regarding the salaries of Jet Airways' general manager and other high-ranking employees, the airline's founder, Naresh Goyal, purportedly engaged a consultancy firm, H D Pathak and Associates, to handle the emoluments. This consultancy arrangement raises questions about the transparency and legitimacy of the salary disbursements.
It's worth noting that within Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal's wife, Anita, held the position of vice president, while their daughter, Namrata, worked in customer service, and their son, Nivaan, served as a manager responsible for cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
According to TOI, Naresh Goyal has disclaimed any knowledge of the salary payments channelled through the consultancy firm, as indicated in the ED's chargesheet. Moreover, the chargesheet points out that payments totalling Rs 279.5 crore were recorded under the consultancy firm's name as "other allowances," raising suspicions that are currently under investigation.
The ED recorded statements of senior executives of the consultancy firm who said they processed salaries of the JIL management from their account on instructions from Goyal received though associate firms. The consultancy firm used to charge Rs 1,000 as a monthly payment per employee from JIL as its fee.
The ED chargesheet said JIL would transfer the salary amounts to the current account of Pathak HD & Associates and then through email would provide employee names, details of amounts to be paid and account details in which salary was supposed to be credited. “Then, salaries were accordingly prepared by Shailesh Sangani & Company and thereafter they used to transfer the salaries to concerned employees from their current account,'' the chargesheet said.
According to reports, Rajesh Chaturvedi, the managing partner of Chaturvedi & Shah LLP, was a joint statutory auditor for Jet Airways and had associations with H D Pathak & Associates. It was also disclosed that two of Chaturvedi's other companies, Alpine Cooperative Advisory Services and Novo Cooperative Advisors, provided tax-related services to JIL.