ED arrests 2 M3M directors in fresh money laundering case linked to bribery

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has arrested Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors of Gurugram-based realty group M3M, in a money laundering probe linked to an alleged bribery case against a former judge and others.

The two were taken into custody by the federal investigation agency on Wednesday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal were produced before a special PMLA court in Panchkula, which sent them to five-day ED custody, the agency said in a statement.

The money laundering case in which the arrests have been made pertains to a Haryana Police Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) FIR filed in April against Sudhir Parmar, a former special judge for ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cases who was posted in Panchkula, his nephew and a third M3M group director Roop Kumar Bansal.

According to the FIR, the ED said, reliable information was received that Parmar was showing "favouritism" to the accused, namely