Sahara to sue Jet for Rs 2,000 crore

New Delhi: The end of Jet Airways-Air Sahara deal capped a series of developments in the recent days.

Following the scrap of the acquisition deal, both the parties moved to court to stop the other party from operating the escrow account opened for the deal.

Jet has filed a petition under Section 9 in the Bombay High Court, which will come up for hearing in two weeks.

Till the time of the verdict, Sahara wants the escrow account of Rs 1,500 crore with ICICI Bank frozen.

The Hindustan Times, citing unnamed sources, said Sahara will seek direct damages of over Rs 2,000 crore from Jet through a process of arbitration once the Bombay High Court appoints the arbitrator.

The newspaper cited sources as saying that Air Sahara has appointed Ernst & Young to quantify the damages it will seek through arbitration.

On Tuesday, breaking the silence on collapse of the Rs 2,300 crore deal to acquire Air Sahara, Jet Airways said the decision not to salvage the pact was purely on 'commercial considerations' and that it was moving the Supreme Court for transfer of litigation in different courts.

On a day which saw media speculation about a move by the aviation major to settle its problems with Air Sahara out of court, Jet Airways sources told CNN-IBN that the agreement ran into rough weather because of ambiguity of the Government policy.

"In any case, the agreement was due to expire on June 21," the sources pointed out.

Terming the controversy as ‘unfortunate,’ Naresh Goyal- controlled Jet indirectly hit out at Sahara saying that it was forced to clarify its position due to ‘inaccurate statements made by vested interests’.

"There is nothing more to the actions of the Parties (of not seeking extension of Share Purchase Agreement) beyond commercial considerations," Jet said a week after the deal fell through, leading to acrimony and legal battle between the two airlines, whose proposed merger was touted as the biggest aviation deal in India.

Goyal, who has been in London even prior to the collapse of the deal, is talking to top most lawyers to handle the resultant situation.