Bribery case: Court rejects ED’s plea for judge’s 8-day custody

Chandigarh, August 17

A Special Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Panchkula, today rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea for eight-day custody of suspended judge Sudhir Parmar in the judge bribery case. He has now been sent to judicial custody.

Parmar was arrested on August 10 after taking permission from the Punjab and Haryana HC. On August 11, the court had granted his six-day custody to the ED. During the hearing, the ED submitted that further custodial interrogation of Sudhir Parmar was required as he remained evasive in his responses. The defence opposed the grant of further remand.

The ED alleges that Parmar was bribed with over Rs 5 crore in the form of a plot and agricultural land in the name of his relatives in Gurugram. The transactions were made to influence a money-laundering case against IREO and M3M groups, pending before him for the framing of charges.

A chargesheet against seven people — Ajay Parmar, Paramveer Singh and Pushpa Devi (relatives of the judge), Rohit Tomar, owner of R Sai Transport Company, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal (promoters of M3M Group) and Lalit Goyal, MD of IREO Group — was filed in the case on August 11.