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Synopsis

While noting that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had not yet been able to implicate the duo in any of the scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Delhi High Court on Friday granted “interim protection” to Basant Bansal, the brother of the director of a real estate development company, M3M India Pvt Ltd, Roop Kumar Bansal, and nephew Pankaj Bansal.

The vacation bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh ordered, “…the totality of the matter, the fact that the Applicants have not been named in the ECIR and that the respondent has not yet been able to implicate the Applicants in any of the Scheduled Offences under the PMLA, in the interest of justice as well as considering the mandate of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, this Court is of the considered opinion that the Applicants may be granted interim protection till the next date of hearing”.

The next date of the hearing is on July 5.

Roop Bansal, arrested on June 8 by the ED, was produced before a special PMLA court in Panchkula on June 9. The court granted his custody to the ED for seven days. After Roop Bansal’s arrest, Basant and Pankaj on June 9 moved the High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

The father-son duo pleaded that they apprehended imminent arrest in light of the events of the last few days, culminating in the “unlawful and illegal” arrest of their relative Roop Bansal.

Justice Singh stated that the prime accused Lalit Goyal of the IREO group has already been granted regular bail on April 24, 2022, in the matter and the same has not been challenged by the ED.

Granting interim protection to the duo, the single-judge bench said that they shall surrender their passports to the investigating officer and under no circumstances leave India without prior permission of the court, cooperate in investigations, remain present before the jurisdictional police station on second and fourth Saturday of every month for two months or till filing of the final report, drop a PIN on the Google map to ensure that their location is available to the investigating officer.

The background of the case is that between 2018-2020, 13 FIRs were registered by certain allottees of two separate residential projects, ‘Skyon’ and Floors, plots and Villas, undertaken by the IREO Group, i.e., M/s IREO Pvt. Ltd. and M/s IREO FiveRiver Pvt. Ltd., respectively, on the ground of delay in handing over/delivery of possession of apartments/ commercial units. There were no specific allegations against the Applicants, his family members, the M3M Group, or any of its entities in the said FIRs. 

During the investigation into the said FIRs against the IREO Group of Companies, ED registered an ECIR on June 15, 2021. In this ECIR as well, the applicants or the M3M Group of Companies were not arrayed as accused and no allegations were leveled against them. 

On June 1, the ED carried out search operations at offices IREO and M3M for allegedly siphoning funds of home buyers and others in Gurugram and Delhi, under the PMLA provisions. Seventeen high-end luxury vehicles Ferrari, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and Mercedes-Maybach having acquisition value of about Rs. 60 crores, jewelry worth Rs. 5.75 crores, Rs. 15 lakh cash, and various incriminating documents, digital evidence, and books of accounts were seized during the search operation

Case Title: Basant Bansal v. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi) & Ors. & Pankaj Bansal v. State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi) & Ors.