<What do you know about the recent report that Dawood Ibrahim was a major investor in Jet Airways. Any truth to that?>[Mario Goveia, June 17]
Actually it was East-West Airlines which allegedly had the underworld links Jet has been recently accused of. In fact East-West's MD was even gunned down gangland style in Mumbai in the 1990s after which the airline ceased operation. Apparently it is now being revived. The issue with Jet in the late 1990s was whether it was getting financial backing from Gulf-based 'airlines'. Its original promoters to the tune of 40% included Kuwait Airways and Gulf Air (I think). A change in aviation policy led to it having to buy these airlines out. Because of Jet's main promoters being NRIs/OCBs there was always some doubt about the source of its equity funding including airline backing which is specifically prohibited. However all the enquiries into this and related matters have reportedly revealed no wrong doing so far. Jet in fact seems to have gone from strength to strength since inception a dozen years ago and its recent IPO revealed that it has one of the highest market caps in the GLOBAL industry! The Dawood story seems a recent twist to the 9/11, Al Qaeda development. The American court case in which Jet has sued the party in Maryland which objected to its operation in the U.S.A might reveal whether there is really any truth to it. Let's watch the situation.
