India's Enforcement Directorate arrests Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal - source

Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways speaks during a news conference in Mumbai·Reuters
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(Reuters) -India's financial crime fighting agency on Friday arrested Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, an Enforcement Directorate source said, in a case local media said was related to an alleged 5.38 billion Indian rupees ($65.06 million) money laundering case linked to Canara Bank.

Goyal was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following a long session of questioning at the ED's office in Mumbai, according to local media reports.

Canara Bank had filed a complaint in May against the airline, Goyal, his wife and a former airline director for "causing wrongful loss" to the lender.

Jet Airways and the ED could not be immediately reached for comment.

Once India's biggest private airline, Jet ran out of cash in April 2019 and filed for bankruptcy. It was supposed to resume operations by the first quarter of 2022 under its new owners.

However, it is deadlocked with creditors over the resolution plan to lift the airline out of bankruptcy.

($1 = 82.6887 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in Delhi and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Krishna Chandra Eluri)

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