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ED arrests Lalit Goyal of IREO in judge bribery case
Lalit Goyal, the managing director of real estate development company IREO, who was first arrested in 2021 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a ‘multi-crore real estate scam’, was in April 2022 granted regular bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested Lalit Goyal, the managing director of real estate development company IREO, in a money laundering case linked to a corruption case against suspended Haryana judicial officer, Sudhir Parmar. The case under Prevention of Corruption Act against Parmar was registered by Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB).
Lalit Goyal has been named as accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED in cases pending before the special CBI and PMLA courts-- that were once presided over by Parmar.
Parmar held charge of the CBI court in Panchkula, and was also special judge under the PMLA, Panchkula.
Goyal, who was first arrested in 2021 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a ‘multi-crore real estate scam’, was in April 2022 granted regular bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court.
Justice Arvind Sangwan of the HC said after going through Goyal’s medical records, based on the report of a medical board constituted by Ambala civil surgeon, found that Goyal’s case would be covered under Section 45(i) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he is a sick person requiring urgent medical treatment.
An additional district and sessions rank judge, Parmar was presiding over the trial of several CBI and ED cases involving real estate developers, retired bureaucrats and politicians.
The ED had started investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after registering an enforcement case information report (ECIR) based on the April 17 first information report (FIR) registered by 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 a public servant being bribed, a public servant taking undue advantage, criminal misconduct by a public servant and criminal conspiracy.
Parmar, suspended on April 27, after being booked on April 17, has been accused of alleged favouritism in his treatment of real estate developers Roop Bansal and his brother Basant Bansal of M3M and Lalit Goyal of IREO Group, as per the ACB’s FIR.
Both Bansals were also arrested by the ED and so was the nephew of judicial officer Parmar.
The ACB FIR was registered on the basis of “reliable source information”, WhatsApp chats and audio recordings of the accused, according to people familiar with the investigation against Parmar.
ED registered a case under the PMLA and arrested Lalit Goyal 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 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 in the IREO case, the FIR said.
The FIR said that in another audio recording, Sudhir Parmar is asking someone for ₹1.5 crore ( ₹50 lakh per head) as illegal gratification for meeting the accused. The FIR said that in three other recordings provided by the source, Sudhir Parmar, the FIR said, always spoke to Bansal and other accused of M3M and IREO using Ajay Parmar’s mobile phone and on WhatsApp and FaceTime calls
“More audio recordings provided by the source reveal that Parmar, during a conversation with an unknown person, admits/claims that he did not let Roop Bansal become an accused in ED cases. In another recording with Roop Bansal, he even promises that if he (Roop Bansal) is let off in the CBI case, then he (Parmar) would not let him (Roop Bansal) become accused in the ED case. In another recording pertaining to property worth ₹1,200 crore, Parmar claims that he has spoken to Sunil Yadav (officer of ED) and he would not allow it to be attached provided some justification for a transaction was shown,” the FIR said.
Sameer Chaudhary, lawyer for the real estate development company IREO in an email on May 11 night had denied allegations of any misconduct or wrongdoing and participation in any offence, as alleged or otherwise.
