The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors of Gurugram-based realty group M3M, in a money laundering matter linked to an anti-corruption bureau case against a Panchkula-based former special court judge, official sources said Thursday. The two directors were taken into custody by the agency on Wednesday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Judge showing favouritism to government agencies
The money laundering case in which they have been arrested pertains to a Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) FIR filed in April against the former special court judge, his nephew and a third M3M group director Roop Kumar Bansal. The judge, according to the ACB FIR, was alleged to have been showing favouritism in the ED and CBI cases against the M3M group directors and another real estate group called IREO.
The judge was later suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. All the people accused in the ACB case have denied wrongdoing. The ED, on June 1, carried out raids against the M3M promoters and some others in another money laundering case linked to the IREO group and its promoter Lalit Goyal.
Firm allegedly received over 400 crore through shell companies
Subsequently, the agency arrested Roop Kumar Bansal and the two other directors, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, obtained interim protection from arrest till July 5 from the Delhi High Court in this case. However, the ED has now arrested them in the ACB case-linked money laundering case.
The agency had issued a statement after the June 1 raids and alleged that a "huge amount of money running into hundreds of crores was siphoned off through the M3M group" in the case against the IREO group. In one of the transactions, the M3M group received about Rs 400 crore from the IREO Group through several shell companies in multiple layers, it had alleged.
