ED arrests nephew of former Panchkula special judge in money laundering probe
New Delhi, June 16: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken into custody Ajay Parmar, the nephew of former special court judge Sudhir Parmar, in connection with a money laundering probe associated with an alleged bribery case involving the former judicial officer.
The arrest was made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after the federal agency conducted searches at Ajay Parmar's premises, according to official sources.
This development follows the recent arrests made by the ED in the same case. On June 14, the agency apprehended Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors and key managerial personnel of Gurugram-based realty group M3M. They were produced before a special PMLA court in Panchkula and remanded to five-day ED custody, as stated in an official release on Thursday.
The money laundering investigation leading to these arrests originated from an FIR filed by the Haryana Police Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in April. The FIR named Sudhir Parmar, Ajay Parmar, and Roop Kumar Bansal, a director of the M3M group, along with others.
The ED's FIR mentioned that reliable information had been received indicating that Sudhir Parmar had exhibited favouritism towards the accused individuals, namely Roop Kumar Bansal, Basant Bansal, and Lalit Goyal, owner of real estate firm IREO, in criminal cases pending against them in his court.
The FIR further alleged instances of grave misconduct, abuse of official position, and the demand and acceptance of undue advantage or bribe from the accused persons in the cases pending in Sudhir Parmar's court, according to the ED.
Following the registration of the ACB case, Sudhir Parmar was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The ED, in its statement, mentioned that it had gathered incriminating evidence, such as bank statements and money trails, regarding the allegations in the FIR prior to the arrests of Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal.
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On June 1, the ED had conducted raids against the M3M promoters and others in a separate money laundering case related to the IREO group and Lalit Goyal. Subsequently, Roop Kumar Bansal was arrested. In this particular case, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal had obtained interim protection from arrest until July 5 from the Delhi High Court. However, the ED arrested them in connection with the money laundering case involving the alleged bribery of the judge by filing a fresh case under the PMLA.
In a statement issued after the June 1 raids, the ED had accused the M3M group of siphoning off a substantial amount of money, reaching hundreds of crores, in the case against the IREO group. The agency alleged that the M3M group received approximately Rs 400 crore from the IREO group through various shell companies organised in multiple layers.
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- With inputs from agencies
