Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal to meet critical wife at home on Saturday

Mumbai, Jan. 11 (IANS) Days after Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal highlighted his plight with tears, a Mumbai Special Court allowed him to consult his private medical doctors and also go home to visit his wife suffering from the final stage of cancer, citing humanitarian grounds, on January 13.

Special Judge M.G. Deshpande on Tuesday permitted the ill Goyal, 75, to consult his private doctors for three days from Wednesday and also go to meet his spouse Anita -- the couple is wedded for over 36 years.

On January 6, a trembling Goyal narrated his predicament in jail, multiple health issues of self, wife and daughter, and pleaded that he wanted to die in jail, as the treatment in the government-run Sir J.J. Hospital was too tedious, hectic, troublesome, and unbearable for his precarious physical condition.

The Special Judge overruled the objections of the Enforcement Directorate -- which nabbed him on September 1, 2023 in an alleged money-laundering case arising out of a Canara Bank loan of Rs 538 crore -- citing humanitarian aspects, and said that Goyal would be escorted by police security.

Goyal had said that “he had lost every hope of life and better he should die rather than keep him alive in such a situation and he had no hope for any future” as his legal team moved a plea for access to medical specialists to treat his ailments.

The once high-flying Jet Airways founder and top aviation honcho also said that his wife Anita was battling the final stages of cancer, and their sole daughter was also suffering from health issues and couldn’t look after her mom.

Special Judge Deshpande took a benign view and assured Goyal of medical help and also considered the genuineness of his submissions from the Arthur Road Central Jail where he is lodged.

“In the background of his natural, genuine submission and the limitation inside Arthur Road Jail to meet his health issues and assisting him every time, no prejudice will be caused if he is permitted to attend his private doctors and get himself examined, diagnosed properly and correctly and fixing the schedule of treatment by his private doctor,” the Special Judge said.

To the ED’s objections, the Special Court said that in view of the exceptional situation, it felt that empathy warrants to consider the accused’ prayers to meet the end of justice on humanitarian grounds, allowing five specialist doctors to meet Goyal, but said they must take the Special Court’s prior permission before admitting him to a hospital.