ED gets approval to attach Panchkula ex-judge’s assets

New Delhi, January 21

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act’s (PMLA) adjudicating authority has confirmed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) attachment order, dated January 18, regarding properties of former special judge Sudhir Parmar.

‘Got Rs 5-7 crore bribe’

• Sudhir Parmar, a former special judge posted in a Panchkula court, was arrested by the ED in August last year
• The judge allegedly received illegal gratification to the tune of Rs 5-7 crore, ED sources said

According to a statement issued by the ED on Sunday, the assets were “found to be acquired from proceeds of crime in the case of Sudhir Parmar and others. The attached properties comprise two immovable properties, which were in the name of relatives/friends of accused ex-PMLA judge Sudhir Parmar”. The value of the assets was Rs 7.59 crore, it said.

As per the PMLA, once a provisional attachment order of the ED is confirmed by the adjudicating authority, the agency can move to confiscate it. Parmar, a former special judge posted in a Panchkula court to try ED and CBI cases, was arrested by the ED in August last year as part of a money laundering case linked to charges of bribery against the judicial officer.

The agency had filed two chargesheets in August and October 2023 in this case in the same special court in Panchkula.

“The judge received illegal gratification to the tune of Rs 5-7 crore from the owners and promoters of IREO Group and M3M Group for extending favours to them,” ED sources said.

“The said illegal gratification was received by the judge purportedly in the form of loan from Rohit Singh Tomar through his proprietorship firm into the bank accounts of the judge’s relatives without any documentation,” the agency sources informed further.

The money laundering case originates from an FIR filed by the Haryana Police’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in April 2023 against Sudhir Parmar, his nephew Ajay Parmar and Roop Kumar Bansal, a promoter of the M3M group.

The agency had earlier arrested Parmar’s nephew Ajay Parmar, two other promoters of real estate company M3M namely Basant Bansal and his son Pankaj Bansal as well as Lalit Goyal, the owner and managing director of realty group IREO in this case.

According to the ACB FIR, the ED had said that reliable information was received that Sudhir Parmar was reportedly showing “favouritism” to the accused, namely Roop Kumar Bansal, his brother Basant Bansal and IREO’s Lalit Goyal in the criminal cases of the ED and other cases of the CBI pending against them in his court.

The ED said in a statement that the ACB FIR stated that “as per reliable information, instances of grave misconduct, abuse of official position and demand and acceptance of undue advantage/bribe from the accused persons in the cases pending in his court were observed (in the judge case)”.

Sudhir Parmar was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court after the registration of the Anti-Corruption Bureau case.