PANKAJ BANSAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners Pankaj Bansal and Basant Bansal have filed these petitions challenging vires of Sec. 19 (1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (for short 'PMLA') and have further made prayer for quashing the orders dtd. 15/6/2023, 20/6/2023 and 26/6/2023 (Annexures P-18, P-20 and P-21) respectively whereby they had been ordered to be remanded to the custody of respondent No.2 and then to judicial custody. Their prayer for declaring Sec. 19 (1) of PMLA as unconstitutional had been rejected on 20/7/2023. So far as, the relief claimed by the petitioners for quashing the orders (Annexures P-18, P-20 and P-21) is concerned, before considering the same, certain facts as emanating from the record are required to be mentioned. The same are that several FIRs had been registered against various IREO group of companies viz., IREO Pvt. Ltd., IREO Grace Realtech, IREO Waterfront Pvt. Limited and IREO Fiveriver Pvt. Limited etc. on the basis of complaints submitted by several buyers who had alleged that they had booked plots in projects being developed by the above cited companies and had handed over different amounts of money. However, they had not been handed over the possession of properties sought to be purchased by them and the money paid by them had been siphoned off. Investigations were conducted and it was revealed that IREO group had received several crores of rupees and huge amount of money had been transferred outside India in last some years in the guise of buyback of shares, redemption, purchase of shares etc. on instructions of one Lalit Goyal who was the Managing Director-Vice Chairman of these companies. The said Mr. Lalit Goyal was arrested on 16/11/2021. His statements were recorded several times during the course of investigation and he was booked under the provisions of PMLA. It was revealed during the course of investigation that huge amount of money was diverted to M3M group of companies by IREO group companies after layering of funds and all the companies through which funds were routed by IREO group to M3M group were shell companies owned/controlled/managed by M3M group and its controller only. The involvement of M3M group in money laundering with Mr. Lalit Goyal of IREO group was revealed. The company M/s M3M India Limited was founded by the petitioner Basant Bansal and one Roop Kumar Bansal and the petitioner Pankaj Bansal was also a Director in this group of companies. Sh. Lalit Goyal had been arrested and was subsequently given concession of bail. During the course of investigation, the present petitioners were also found involved in laundering the money diverted by IREO group of companies and were booked along with accused Roop Bansal. They secured concession of anticipatory bail from High Court of Delhi.

(2.) It is also revealed that on 17/4/2023, FIR No.0006 was registered at Police Station Anti Corruption Bureau, Panchkula on the basis of some information received against Mr. Sudhir Parmar posted as Special Judge for dealing with cases of Enforcement Directorate and CBI cases at Panchkula on the allegations that he was showing favourism to Lalit Goyal, owner of IREO group of companies, Roop Bansal and his brother Basant Bansal who were owners of M3M and were cited as accused and cases against whom were pending before his Court. As per the source information, Mr. Sudhir Parmar while being posted as Additional District and Sessions Judge, Gurugram and by abusing his official position, had got undue favours from the owners of M3M and IREO group of companies by getting appointed his nephew Mr. Ajay Parmar @ Amrit as a Legal Advisor in M3M company on salary package of approximately Rs.12.00 lac per annum which on transfer of Mr. Sudhir Parmar as Special Judge of CBI at Panchkula had been hiked to Rs.18.0020 lacs in connivance with the present petitioners, Roop Bansal and Lalit Goyal. Some audio recordings and screenshots of whatsapp chats were provided. A case under Ss. 7, 8, 11 and 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sec. 120-B of IPC was registered against the above named Sh. Sudhir Parmar, Ajay Parmar, Sh. Roop Bansal and some unknown persons. The petitioners were arrested in FIR No.6 of 2023 on 14/6/2023 and were initially ordered to be remanded to the custody of Enforcement Directorate and then to judicial custody. In these petitions, they have challenged the orders whereby they had been remanded to custody i.e. orders (Annexures P-18, P-20 and P-21) respectively on the ground that these orders are in violation of procedure established by law and have been passed in a mechanical manner without due application of mind.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioners have argued that the arrest of the petitioners was illegal and in violation of the safeguards laid down under Sec. 19 of PMLA. The remand order had been passed in routine by the Court and the fact that the petitioners were arrested only on the basis of summons without issuance of any warrant by the police and against their constitutional rights were ignored. It was argued by learned counsel that the arrest of the petitioners had been effected without due compliance of provisions of Ss. 41 and 41-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure and, therefore, it was vehemently argued that the impugned orders as passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Panchkula thereby remanding to the petitioners to the custody of respondent No.2 and then to judicial custody were liable to be set aside.