MUMBAI: The salaries of some senior employees of Jet Airways (India) Ltd (JIL) were paid by a firm dealing in botanical products, mosquito coils, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, the Enforcement Directorate said in its chargesheet on irregularities committed by the airline founder Naresh Goyal and his wife, among others.
ED said the firm, identified as S A Sangani & Associates, paid Rs 40.9 crore as salary to JIL’s senior management.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 chargesheet.
For confidentiality on salaries JIL paid to general manager and employees above that level, Goyal hired a consultancy firm, H D Pathak and Associates, to process emoluments, the chargesheet said. Goyal’s wife Anita was vice-president, daughter Namrata was in customer service, and son Nivaan worked as manager for cost reduction-efficiency improvement in JIL.
Goyal has denied any knowledge of the salary payments through the consultancy firm, said the chargesheet. It said payments of Rs 279.5 crore were recorded against the name of the consultancy firm as “other allowances”. These were suspicious and were being probed, it said.
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 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.
Rajesh Chaturvedi, the managing partner of Chaturvedi & Shah LLP, was the joint statutory auditor of JIL and had a business association with H D Pathak and Associates. Shah told the probe agency that two of his other companies (Alpine Cooperate Advisory Services Pvt Ltd and Novo Cooperative Advisors Pvt Ltd) provided tax-related services to JIL.
ED said the firm, identified as S A Sangani & Associates, paid Rs 40.9 crore as salary to JIL’s senior management.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 chargesheet.
For confidentiality on salaries JIL paid to general manager and employees above that level, Goyal hired a consultancy firm, H D Pathak and Associates, to process emoluments, the chargesheet said. Goyal’s wife Anita was vice-president, daughter Namrata was in customer service, and son Nivaan worked as manager for cost reduction-efficiency improvement in JIL.
Goyal has denied any knowledge of the salary payments through the consultancy firm, said the chargesheet. It said payments of Rs 279.5 crore were recorded against the name of the consultancy firm as “other allowances”. These were suspicious and were being probed, it said.
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 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.
Rajesh Chaturvedi, the managing partner of Chaturvedi & Shah LLP, was the joint statutory auditor of JIL and had a business association with H D Pathak and Associates. Shah told the probe agency that two of his other companies (Alpine Cooperate Advisory Services Pvt Ltd and Novo Cooperative Advisors Pvt Ltd) provided tax-related services to JIL.