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Siphoning homebuyers’ money: ED gets 7-day custody of M3M India director
M3M India director Roop Bansal, who was arrested on June 8 by the ED, was on Friday produced before the court of Panchkula additional district and sessions judge, Praveen Kumar Lal, holding the charge of special PMLA court. The court while granting his custody to the ED said that Roop Bansal’s lawyer would be allowed to meet him once a day and his medical examination will be conducted.
A Panchkula court on Friday granted seven days custody of Roop Kumar Bansal, a director of the real estate development company, M3M India Private Ltd, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Roop Bansal, who was arrested on June 8 by the ED, was on Friday produced before the court of Panchkula additional district and sessions judge, Praveen Kumar Lal, holding the charge of special PMLA court. The court while granting his custody to the ED said that Roop Bansal’s lawyer would be allowed to meet him once a day and his medical examination will be conducted.
The PMLA investigations were initiated based on multiple FIRs registered against the IREO group. The investigations done by the ED, however, revealed that a huge amount of money running in hundreds of crores was siphoned off through M3M group also. ED officials said that the custody of Roop Kumar Bansal had become necessary for investigations. He has been avoiding investigation and was not responding to summons issued by ED on multiple occasions, ED officials said.
Meanwhile, the Delhi high court on Friday granted interim relief (from arrest) to Roop Bansal’s brother, Basant Bansal and Basant’s son Pankaj Bansal till July 5.
Apprehending arrest by the ED, Basant and Pankaj on Friday petitioned the Delhi high court seeking anticipatory bails following Roop Bansal’s arrest on June 8.
In separate bail applications filed before the HC, Basant and his son Pankaj contended they apprehended imminent arrest in light of the events of the last few days, culminating in the unlawful and illegal arrest of Roop Kumar Bansal (Basant’s brother and Pankaj’s paternal uncle).
“The arrest of Roop Kumar Bansal not only reeked of malafide on part of the ED but also violated his fundamental right and fortified our apprehension of imminent arrest. While the main accused in the enforcement case information report (ECIR) is on bail, the arrest of Roop Kumar Bansal who is neither arrayed as an accused in the proceedings for the scheduled offences nor arrayed as an accused in the proceedings pertaining to predicate offence, is violative of PMLA and tantamount to illegal and unlawful arrest,’’ the petition said.
The Central agency had on June 1 carried out a search operation at offices of the real estate developers IREO and M3M for allegedly siphoning funds of home buyers and others. The search operations, as per ED officials, were carried out at seven locations in Gurugram and Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provisions.
Seventeen high-end luxury vehicles such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley and Mercedes-Maybach having acquisition value of about ₹60 crore, jewelry worth ₹5.75 crore, ₹15 lakh cash and various incriminating documents, digital evidence and books of accounts were seized during the search operation.
Following the ED search operations, M3M India Private Ltd, and its director Roop Bansal filed a petition in the Delhi high court seeking quashing of summons for the personal appearance of Roop Bansal and his brother Basant.
The petitioners also sought the quashing of memos for seizure of cars, electronic devices, cash and jewellery during the search operations. The petition, mentioned as an urgent one, was taken up by the high court on June 7 and posted for the next hearing on June 12. The petitioners have also sought quashing of a letter freezing the bank accounts of its companies and issuing of directions to prohibit the ED from taking any precipitative action against them.
