ED arrests 2 M3M directors in fresh money laundering case linked to bribery

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has arrested Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors of Gurugram-based realty group M3M, in a money laundering probe linked to an alleged bribery case against a former judge and others.

The two were taken into custody by the federal investigation agency on Wednesday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal were produced before a special PMLA court in Panchkula, which sent them to five-day ED custody, the agency said in a statement.

The money laundering case in which the arrests have been made pertains to a Haryana Police Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) FIR filed in April against Sudhir Parmar, a former special judge for ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cases who was posted in Panchkula, his nephew and a third M3M group director Roop Kumar Bansal.

According to the FIR, the ED said, reliable information was received that Parmar was showing "favouritism" to the accused, namely Roop Kumar Bansal, his brother Basant Bansal and Lalit Goyal, owner of real estate firm IREO, in the criminal cases of the ED and other cases of the CBI pending against them in his court.

"It was further stated (in the FIR) that as per reliable information, instances of grave misconduct, abuse of official position and demand and acceptance of undue advantage/bribe from the accused persons in the cases pending in his court were observed," the ED said.

Parmar was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court after the registration of the ACB case.

The ED said it has collected "incriminating evidences such as bank statements and money trail, etc. with respect to the allegations in the FIR before making the (latest) arrests".

The agency, on June 1, carried out raids against the M3M promoters and some others in another money laundering case linked to the IREO group and Goyal.

Subsequently, the agency arrested Roop Kumar Bansal. Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal obtained interim protection from arrest till July 5 from the Delhi High Court in this case.

However, the ED has now arrested them in the money laundering case linked to alleged bribery of the judge after filing a fresh case under the PMLA.

In a statement issued after the June 1 raids, the agency had alleged that a "huge amount of money running into hundreds of crores was siphoned off through the M3M group" in the case against the IREO group.

In one of the transactions, the M3M group received about Rs 400 crore from the IREO group through several shell companies in multiple layers, it had alleged.