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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to interfere in the arrest of the accused. Basant Bansal And Pankaj BansalDirector of Gurugram-based realty group M3M in a money laundering probe linked to an alleged bribery case against a former judge and others.
The M3M directors, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday and sent to five-day custody by a special court in Panchkula, argued that their arrest bypassed a High Court order directing them to face a money laundering charge. In other cases protection from coercive action was provided. ,
A vacation bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh said the petitioners have been remanded to ED custody by a trial court after their arrest and it cannot decide its legality as the order was passed by a court outside its jurisdiction.
On the petition seeking the release of the petitioners, the judge said, “I am of the view that once the order of remand has been passed by the competent court at Panchkula, the proper remedy is to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court.” As interim relief from “illegal detention”.
The court has given 10 days time to the ED to file its reply on the main petition against the arrest.
“We will issue notice. My territorial jurisdiction restricts me. I cannot say that this order (of remand) is bad,” the court said orally.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, N Hariharan and Mohit Mathur appeared for the petitioners and argued that the M3M directors were arrested when they were to cooperate with the investigation in another money laundering case in view of the High Court’s order. went to the agency.
The High Court had on June 9 granted interim protection from arrest till July 5 to Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal in a money laundering case involving real estate firm IREO.
Singhvi submitted that in the present case the arrest was arbitrary and the ED cannot set aside the earlier order of the court.
It was also argued that the agency should have mentioned the existence of the present case when the High Court was hearing the petitioners’ plea for anticipatory bail in another case.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, opposed the plea and said the present case is a “serious matter” which pertains to the independence of the judiciary.
He said that the arrest trial has been conducted by a competent court and the petitioners have been remanded to ED custody.
The money laundering case in which Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal have been arrested is related to an FIR lodged by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Haryana Police against Sudhir Parmar, former special judge for ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cases, in April. His nephew and the third were posted in Panchkula. M3M Group director Roop Kumar Bansal,
According to the FIR, the ED said, credible information was received that Parmar was showing “favouritism” towards accused in the ED’s criminal cases and other cases, namely Roop Kumar Bansal, his brother Basant Bansal and IREO owner Lalit Goyal. The CBI is pending against him in the court.
Parmar was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court after the ACB case was registered.
The ED has said that it has collected “incriminating evidence such as bank statements and money trail etc” in connection with the allegations in the FIR before making the “(latest) arrests”.
The next hearing of the case will be in July.
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