E-Paper
SC reserves order on bail pleas of M3M directors in PMLA case
The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its orders on petitions filed by the directors of real estate group M3M, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, seeking interim bail in a money laundering case
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its orders on petitions filed by the directors of real estate group M3M, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, seeking interim bail in a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Bansals are also accused of bribing a trial court judge (since suspended) to secure favourable orders.
A bench of justices AS Bopanna and Sanjay Kumar closed arguments in the case after agreeing to consider the petitions by Basant and Pankaj Bansal, who have challenged their arrest citing several violations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and demanded interim bail on medical ground.
Both the accused were arrested on June 14 after ED, probing into money laundering charges against Gurugram-based M3M and another real estate firm, Ireo group, found that an amount to the tune of over ₹400 crore was diverted through several shell companies. Further investigations revealed that the two firms tried to manipulate the trial court proceedings in ED cases against them by “indirectly” bribing special judge Sudhir Parmar.
Parmar was suspended from service on April 27.
Opposing the petitions, additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju, who represented ED, referred to the evidence collected so far to indicate that their modus operandi in managing the judge was “shocking”. He told the court that the arrest was legal and the entire procedure of taking them into custody was video-graphed. Last week, ED also filed an affidavit opposing the bail pleas.
“A person who is capable of interfering with the independence of judiciary would certainly not be entitled to be released in a serious offence of money laundering,” the affidavit said.
“The fact that the petitioners — Pankaj and Basant Bansal — being key managerial persons or promoters of M3M group have bribed the ED judge to take benefit in existing proceedings shows that they are capable of influencing witnesses and authorities and further capable of tampering with evidence,” it added.
