Real Estate Firm Owners Get Pre-Arrest Bail In Money Laundering Case

The Delhi High Court has granted interim protection from arrest till July 5 to M3M Group owners Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal in a money laundering case linked to real estate firm IREO.

A vacation bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said in the case of arrest, the owners of the Gurugram-based realty company would be granted bail, subject to certain conditions, on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh each with two sureties of the like amount.

The court's orders came on separate anticipatory bail applications by Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal in the case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

"In the event of any arrest of the applicant, he shall be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,00,000/- with two sureties of the like amount to the satisfaction of the Investigating Agency," the court said in its orders passed on June 9.

"The totality of the matter, the fact that the Applicant has not been named in the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) and that the respondent has not yet been able to implicate the Applicant 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 Applicant may be granted interim protection till the next date of hearing," it said.

It also noted that the "primary accused" and promoter of IREO Group Lalit Goel has already been granted regular bail.

The court granted the ED time till July 5 to file a status report as well as other documents in response to the pre-arrest bail pleas.

The ED opposed the anticipatory bail pleas of the M3M Group owners.

Last week, the agency had arrested M3M Director Roop Kumar Bansal in connection with the investigation against IREO and M3M groups for "diverting, siphoning (off) and misappropriating funds of investors and customers."

On June 1, the ED had carried out raids against the M3M Group and its directors as well as against IREO in Delhi and Gurugram.

It later alleged in a press statement that the owners, controllers and promoters of the M3M Group -- Basant Bansal, Roop Kumar Bansal, Pankaj Bansal -- and other key persons deliberately avoided investigations during the raids.

The agency has alleged that a "huge amount of money running into hundreds of crores was siphoned off through the M3M Group" in this case.

In one of the transactions, the M3M Group received about Rs 400 crore from IREO through several shell companies in multiple layers, the ED has said.

It said its probe found that the five shell companies were operated by the M3M Group.

These shell companies immediately sold the development rights of the land to IREO for about Rs 400 crore and after receiving the amount, the five shell companies transferred it immediately to the M3M Group through another set of shell companies, the agency has alleged.

The ED has been investigating IREO for the last few years on charges of diverting, siphoning off and misappropriating funds of investors and customers.

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