Corruption case against CBI/PMLA judge:HC recommends Haryana to grant sanction to prosecute judicial officer
Parmar, an additional district and sessions-rank judge, was holding charge of special CBI and PMLA courts in Panchkula when he was booked by the Haryana anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on April 17, 2023.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has recommended that under suspension Haryana judicial officer, Sudhir Parmar be tried by a court for alleged corruption and criminal misconduct.

Parmar, an additional district and sessions-rank judge, was holding charge of special CBI and PMLA courts in Panchkula when he was booked by the Haryana anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on April 17, 2023.
The high court, after examining the challan or the chargesheet prepared by the ACB, has made its recommendation to the state government.
The first information report (FIR) was registered against the judicial officer, his nephew, Ajay Parmar and Roop Bansal, who is the director of real estate company M3M India Pvt Ltd by the ACB under sections 7, 8, 11 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code for offences relating to public servant being bribed, a public servant taking undue advantage without consideration from person concerned in proceedings or business transacted by such public servant, criminal misconduct by a public servant and criminal conspiracy.
‘Investigative findings in favour of predicate offence’
The ACB investigated the matter for about 18 months before deciding to seek sanction of the Haryana government to prosecute Parmar. The challan was then sent to the high court by the investigating agency for its recommendation on the matter.
As per section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, no court can take cognisance of an offence alleged to have been committed by a judicial officer which acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty, except with the previous sanction of the state government. As per norms prescribed by the high court, the state government should call for and follow the recommendation of the high court in this regard.
While the state government is yet to grant or refuse sanction to prosecute the judicial officer, it is unlikely that the sanction will be refused in view of high court’s recommendation to send the accused judicial officer to face trial.
“There are investigative findings in favour of the commission of the predicate offence which, therefore, exists,” a special PMLA court had observed in its January 7 order with regards to ACB seeking sanction to prosecute the judicial officer.
WhatsApp chats, audio recordings formed basis of FIR
The FIR was registered by ACB on the basis of “reliable source information”, WhatsApp chats and audio recordings of the accused. The judicial officer has been accused of alleged favouritism to real estate developers Roop Bansal and his brother Basant Bansal of M3M and Lalit Goyal of IREO Group, as per the FIR registered by the ACB. The Bansals and Goyal have been named as accused by the CBI and the ED in cases pending before the special CBI court -- a court that was presided over by Parmar.
Parmar was presiding over the trial of several CBI and ED cases involving real estate developers, retired bureaucrats and politicians. He was questioned by an ACB team on April 18, 2023, morning raid at his official residence in Panchkula. He was placed under suspension by the high court chief justice on April 27, 2023, after an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court (SC) was filed by the HC seeking the permission of the apex court to transfer Parmar “in view of gravity and seriousness of the matter”.
Judge was arrested by ED but got bail
The ACB FIR, on whose basis the Enforcement Directorate also registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR) to probe money laundering, had arrested the under suspension judicial officer in August 2023, but he was granted bail in November 2023.
The ACB FIR “reliable source(-based) information” disclosed instances of grave misconduct, abuse of official position and demand/acceptance of undue advantage/bribe from the accused in cases pending in Parmar’s court.
The ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and arrested Lalit Goyal, the vice-chairman and managing director of realty giant IREO Group in November 2021 for allegedly cheating home buyers and others. In February 2022, ED presented a prosecution complaint (challan) against Goyal in the special PMLA court in Panchkula.
“The source has provided screenshots of WhatsApp chats between Parmar and another person in which he demands ₹5 crore to ₹7 crore for helping the M3M owners in ED cases and requests the person chatting with him to receive the bribe on his behalf. In the same chat, the person says that ₹5 crore has already been given to Sudhir Parmar by the accused of IREO case,” the FIR said. The WhatsApp chats were allegedly made from Parmar’s own mobile device as well as that of his nephew, Ajay Parmar, employed by M3M as a legal adviser, the FIR said.
