Jahanvi Agarwal
Recently, the Supreme Court of India was informed that drastic powers have been provided to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate money laundering cases and that the powers provided have to be reined.
The bench consisted of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh heard a collection of pleas filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Gurugram-based realty group M3M.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing on behalf of directors of realty group M3M, stated that:
“These are drastic powers given to the ED. If the court does not rein them in, no one is safe in this country. See how the arrest was done. They were cooperating. The arrest was in violation of my rights… These powers need to be reined in.”
Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors of M3M who were arrested in a money laundering investigation connected to a case of bribery against a former judge, were being represented by Mr. Salve and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi.
The panel dismissed the Bansal brothers’ appeals in its judgment and stated that they will now seek the Punjab and Haryana High Court for anticipatory bail.
In the money laundering investigation connected to a bribery case against a former judge, the top court was hearing a number of petitions, including challenges to a recent Delhi High Court order that had refused to interfere with the arrest of M3M directors.
On June 14, the ED arrested the Bansal brothers in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). They were thereafter brought before a special PMLA court in Panchkula, Haryana, which ordered them to spend five days in ED custody.
In the money laundering case involving the real estate business IREO, the High Court awarded interim protection from arrest to Basant and Pankaj Bansal on the 9th of June, which will only be valid until the 5th of July.
According to Bansals, this type of custody is illegal detention and was an effort to avoid the High Court’s orders granting them protection from coercive action in another money laundering case.
The Bansal brothers were arrested in the money laundering case due to the Haryana Police Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) FIR filed on April 17 against a former special judge of the CBI, Sudhir Parmar, who was posted in Panchkula, another director of M3M, Roop Kumar Bansal, and another person.
The ED stated that he had received evidence indicating that Mr. Parmar was favoring the defendant in a money laundering case involving the real estate business IREO. The Punjab and Haryana High Court suspended Mr. Parmar after the ACB filed the complaint.
On June 1, the ED conducted raids in Delhi and Gurugram against the M3M Group, its directors, and IREO. It alleged that a “huge amount of money running into hundreds of crores was siphoned off through the M3M Group” in this case.