Enforcement Directorate attaches former Punjab & Sind Bank officer’s Rs 2 crore assets

Immovable assets and fixed deposits worth Rs 2.56 crore of a former Punjab & Sind Bank officer have been attached after it was found that he allegedly broke fixed deposits of customers, worth over Rs 52 crore, and used the money to play online games, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Sunday.

Bedanshu Shekhar Mishra, posted at the bank’s branch at Khalsa College in Delhi University’s north campus, was suspended in November 2022 after the alleged fraud came to light, the central agency said in its statement.

The ED case, filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stems from a CBI FIR. It is alleged that the fraud took place in 2021-22.

The ED said the probe found that Mishra “reportedly misused his official position and carried out fraudulent transactions by using his system ID and those of other staff members in an unauthorised way to break FDs of several customers, including those from Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, Delhi University, without their knowledge”.

He “committed fraud and forgery with the bank as well as with the account holders of the bank and misappropriated or siphoned public money to the tune of Rs 52,99,53,698,” the agency claimed.

It further alleged that the accounts to which the proceeds were transferred by Mishra were borrowed by the owners of the gaming website/companies on commission basis.

(Courtesy:- The Tribune, 22 January 2024)

PMLA Adjudicating Authority approves ED attachment order in case against ex-Panchkula special judge

Two properties worth more than Rs 7 crore of the relatives and friends of a former special PMLA Judge posted in Haryana’s Panchkula, arrested in a money laundering case, can soon be confiscated after the adjudicating authority approved the seizure order, the Enforcement Directorate said on Sunday.

The central agency had attached the properties in August last year as part of a provisional order issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The PMLA's adjudicating authority confirmed the said attachment order on January 18, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in a statement.

The assets were “found to be acquired from proceeds of crime in the case of Sudhir Parmar and others. The attached properties comprise two immovable properties, which were in the name of relatives/friends of the accused ex-PMLA judge Sudhir Parmar”. The value of the assets is Rs 7.59 crore, it said.

As per the PMLA, once a provisional attachment order of the ED is confirmed by the adjudicating authority, the agency can move to confiscate it.

Parmar, a former special judge posted in a Panchkula court to try the ED and CBI cases, was arrested by the ED in August as part of a money laundering case linked to charges of bribery against the judicial officer.

The agency had filed two chargesheets in August and October, 2023, in this case in the same special court in Panchkula.

“The judge received illegal gratification to the tune of Rs 5-7 crore from the owners and promoters of IREO Group and M3M Group for extending favours to them,” the ED claimed.

“The said illegal gratification was received by the judge purportedly in the form of loan from Rohit Singh Tomar through his proprietorship firm into the bank accounts of the judge's relatives without any documentation,” the agency claimed.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Haryana Police's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in April, 2023, against Sudhir Parmar, his nephew Ajay Parmar and Roop Kumar Bansal, a promoter of the M3M group.

The agency had earlier arrested Parmar's nephew Ajay Parmar, two other promoters of real estate company M3M -- Basant Bansal and his son Pankaj Bansal -- and Lalit Goyal, the owner and MD of another realty group IREO, in this case.

According to the ACB FIR, the ED had said reliable information was received that Sudhir Parmar was showing “favouritism” to the accused, namely Roop Kumar Bansal, his brother Basant Bansal and IREO's Lalit Goyal in the criminal cases of the ED and other cases of the CBI pending against them in his court.

The ED said in a statement that the ACB FIR stated that “as per reliable information, instances of grave misconduct, abuse of official position and demand and acceptance of undue advantage/bribe from the accused persons in the cases pending in his court were observed (in the judge case)”.

Sudhir Parmar was suspended by the Punjab and Haryana High Court after the registration of the ACB case.

(Courtesy:- The Tribune, 21 January 2024)