Supreme Aviation (India) (Mumbai International) president and CEO, Ammeet Agarwal, has been arrested by India's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in connection with an alleged fraudulent aircraft transaction worth INR45 million rupees (USD538,606), according to local news reports.
ch-aviation has requested comment from Agarwal, a pilot whose aviation company forms part of the Agarwal family-run logistics provider Supreme Transport Organisation.
According to reports in the Times of India, the Hindustan Times, and the Indian Express, Agarwal arranged to sell a damaged Cessna (single turboprop) 208B Caravan to Dutch entity Trek Air, owned by Michiel Kneefel, who buys and sells old aircraft.
In July 2022, Kneefel had deposited the money into an escrow account managed by Powell Aircraft Title Services in the US. However, unbeknownst to Kneefel, there was an ongoing legal dispute involving the directors of Supreme Transport, which had already reached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), reported the Indian investigative news site The 420. This meant the aircraft was under a status quo order, preventing its sale.
Despite this, the aircraft was readied for shipping from Mundra Port in Gujarat on February 7, 2023. On Agarwal's instructions, Kneefel transferred an additional INR490,000 (USD5,864) into the bank account of Agarwal’s uncle’s company, Shorelight Limited, in London.
However, Kneefel subsequently received an email from Axis Bank in Mumbai that the plane was mortgaged to them. The bank had approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Mumbai to recover the loan and seize the aircraft.
Supreme Transport directors engaged in the legal dispute with Agarwal also informed the NCLT of his violation of the court’s order preventing the sale. Consequently, the court directed customs to prevent the aircraft from leaving the country.
Kneefel demanded a refund but Agarwal refused, insisting he would have to await the settlement of the legal dispute. This led Kneefel to instruct his legal representative to file a formal police complaint, resulting in Agarwal's arrest.
According to The 420, Agarwal was also arrested in April 2022 for falsely asserting his status as an honorary consul of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in India. His authorisation had been revoked by both the DRC government and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs four years earlier.
