Exclusive: Are the infamous Gupta Brothers of South Africa secretly buying Jet Airways?

Murari Lal Jalan has links with the Gupta brothers are facing many cases of corruption, bribery in South Africa and the United States has banned any business deal with them.

New Delhi: Are the Gupta Brothers of South Africa backing Murari Lal Jalan who bid to buy Jet Airways? Gupta brothers are facing many cases of corruption, bribery in South Africa and the United States has banned any business dealings with them. 

In the first disclosure of Zee News, we uncovered that:

1. Murari Lal Jalan has given insufficient information to buy Jet Airways.

2. Murari Lal Jalan has total assets of about Rs 1000 crores but he is buying a company (Jet Airways) that was under a debt of  Rs 17000 crores at the time of the closure of its operations.

3. Murari Lal Jalan has not revealed the source of money for the purchase in the documents he submitted for the deal.

4. Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, who are facing many cases, are behind the purchase of Jet Airways.

Are the Gupta Brothers, and not Murali Lal Jalan, who are buying Jet Airways?

Shivangi, daughter of Murari Lal Jalan's brother Vishal Jalan, was married to Atul Gupta's son Shashank Singhal in 2019. Zee News has information that the Jalan and Gupta families are currently in Dubai.

The Gupta brothers fled the country in 2018 following serious allegations in South Africa. They continued to move around different places. The brothers are currently in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Murari Lal Jalan's family first moved from Ranchi and Kolkata and then reached Dubai, where they have been staying for a long time. They conduct business in different countries from Dubai.

The Jalan family' company 'Agio Image' has connections with Akash Garg's 'AGEV Investment Ltd'. Garg is a very close relative of the Gupta Brothers.

Akash Garg's company is listed as an offshore company in Dubai. Agio Image and AGEV Investment Ltd run their business from Dubai itself.

In January 2018, Akash Garg first signed an agreement through his company AGEV Investment to give a loan of 50 million US dollars to Murari Lal Jalan's company Agio Image at an interest rate of 4 per cent per annum.

However, in the next month, Murari Lal Jalan gave 2 crore dirhams (about 54 million US dollars) to Akash Garg's company as a second loan. For this also, the rate of interest was fixed at 4 per cent.

The documents contain signatures from both Akash Garg and Murari Lal Jalan.

Apart from this, Zee News has also accessed evidence of the partnership between Akash Garg and Murari Lal Jalan in a project in Uzbekistan. There is a Minerva Knowledge Park in Uzbekistan, in which Murari Lal Jalan and Akash Garg's hold a 50 per cent stake each. The deal was signed in 2019.

We sought a response from Murari Lal Jalan regarding the connection between his family and the Gupta Brothers. We asked if the Gupta Brothers are backing him? We also sought information about the relationship between the two families.

Here's the response:

"Murari Lal Jalan has no business relationship with the Gupta Brothers of South Africa. In such a situation, it is wrong to associate Jalan and his business with the Gupta family. Personal relationships are separate from business activities. Murari Lal Jalan has no information about the businesses of Gupta Brothers in India or anywhere else. In such a situation, it would be wrong to link Jalan with the Gupta Brothers. We want to emphasize that the Gupta Brothers have nothing to do with the Jet Airways deal either directly or indirectly."

The business relationship between the two families can be easily understood through the documents Zee News possesses.

In the third part of this disclosure, Zee News will tell you why the US has completely banned any business deal or agreement with the Gupta Brothers.

The question remains: How can the Gupta brothers, who are banned in the US, stay behind the scenes in the Jet Airways deal in India?