Court orders two-day custody for IREO MD

: A special court hearing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases at Panchkula on Wednesday ordered that the managing director of real estate development company IREO, Lalit Goyal, be sent to two days custody of Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Goyal was arrested on Tuesday by ED in a money laundering case linked to a corruption case against suspended Haryana judicial officer, Sudhir Parmar. ED had sought 14 days custody for Goyal to investigate who all were involved in the money laundering case.

Defence counsel Vikram Chaudhari argued that the ED has no material against Goyal. “If the salary of nephew of the judicial officer was increased or if nephew’s mother bought property, how is it linked to Goyal?’’ he asked.

“All they (ED) have is a screenshot of a Whatsapp conversation claimed to be between Parmar and another person. Goyal is not even named as an accused in the FIR registered by ACB,” he argued.

The counsel alleged that Goyal has been granted bail by the apex court on medical grounds in one case.

His arrest was made in an undue haste as he regularly appears before ED in another case.

Special public prosecutor of ED, Lokesh Narang, argued that ED has enough material evidence against Goyal.

“We are dealing with a case in which one judicial officer has been suspended on the directions of the high court. This is not just any case,” he argued.

Goyal will be taken back to Gurugram tonight for further questioning and produced again in court on Friday.

The 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 Prevention of 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 Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after registering an enforcement case information report (ECIR) on June 13.

Both Bansals were arrested by the ED and so was the nephew of the judicial officer. Goyal was first arrested in 2021 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a ‘multi-crore real estate scam’, but in April 2022 granted regular bail by the apex court on medical grounds.

Meanwhile, the special PMLA court on July 3 extended the judicial custody of Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal of the M3M, and Ajay Parmar, the nephew of suspended judicial officer, Sudhir Parmar till July 17.