New Delhi, March 11:

India’s anti-trust body has at first sight found nothing wrong with the aviation deal in which Jet Airways is to buy out rival Air Sahara for $500 million.

“Nothing has really been found prima facie to show there has been a violation by Jet Airways in the deal as far as monopolistic practice is concerned,” said B K Rathi, chairman of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission. “But since there is a lot of public outcry and matters flared up, we have decided to get a complete evaluation done by a competent authority.”

A Jet spokesperson said he had no knowledge about the move by the anti-trust commission. “We have ensured that we comply with all the existing guidelines on takeovers and mergers,” he said. The commission has forwarded the case to its investigations arm that will analyse the case step by step with respect to current laws and ascertain if any unfair trade practices were adopted by the Jet management.

“The director general of investigation will submit the report in a week’s time,” Rathi said, “Since the aviation industry is liberalised and ma-ny new players are coming in, the deal does not show an obvious monopolistic bid. But in course of evaluation, when relevant docume-nts pertaining to the deal show cartelisation of the sector or an attempt to quash or tilt competition or a bid to monopolise the sector, actions would certainly be taken.”

Under such circumstances, notices could be issued followed by a trial to reach a logical conclusion, the commission chief said. The recommendations made by the investigating arm would decide the merger of the two airlines into one.