Money laundering case: No relief for IREO MD as court dismisses bail plea

Managing director of the IREO group Lalit Goyal, who is presently lodged in a jail, was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in a money laundering case linked to a corruption case against suspended Haryana judicial officer Sudhir Parmar

A Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Special Court, Panchkula, on Thursday dismissed the bail plea moved by Lalit Goyal, managing director of the IREO group.

The ED opposed the plea by arguing that current medical condition of Lalit Goyal would be immaterial in the face of the fact that after grant of bail in June 2021, he allegedly destroyed the evidence by deleting data, chats and messages from his phone.

The PMLA court, presided over by Rajiv Goyal, dismissed the bail application filed on behalf of Lalit Goyal, though the detailed order was not immediately made available.

Managing director of the IREO group Lalit Goyal, who is presently lodged in a jail, was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in a money laundering case linked to a corruption case against suspended Haryana judicial officer Sudhir Parmar.

During the hearing of arguments, Lalit Goyal’s counsel had argued that Punjab and Haryana high court had granted him bail “primarily on medical grounds”.

Pressing for grant of bail, the counsel had also argued that the entire basis of the ED case was on falsehood as there were no allegations in WhatsApp chat against Lalit Goyal. Terming the arrest as uncalled and illegal, he pressed for grant of bail to Lalit Goyal.

The ED opposed it by arguing that current medical condition of Lalit Goyal would be immaterial in the face of the fact that after grant of bail in June 2021, he allegedly destroyed the evidence by deleting data, chats and messages from his phone.

Haryana ACB registered case

On April 17, Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) registered a case under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against a judicial officer of additional district and sessions rank, Sudhir Parmar, under the corruption Act for allegedly favouring real estate developers Roop Bansal and his brother Basant Bansal of M3M and Lalit Goyal of IREO Group, as per the ACB’s FIR. Parmar, who was placed under suspension on April 27 by the high court, was presiding over as the special CBI and PMLA judge at Panchkula.

Based on the ACB FIR, the ED had started investigations under the PMLA after registering an enforcement case information report (ECIR) on June 13.

Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal were arrested by the ED and so was the nephew, Ajay Parmar, of the judicial officer. Lalit Goyal was first arrested in 2021 by the ED in a ‘multi-crore real estate scam’, but in April 2022 was granted regular bail by the apex court on medical grounds.