The Haryana government has granted sanction to prosecute suspended judicial officer and former special CBI judge Sudhir Parmar for alleged corruption and criminal misconduct, paving the way for his criminal trial.
According to senior officials, the sanction was accorded recently under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Such sanction is mandatory for initiating prosecution against a public servant booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
FIR and Charges
Parmar, then posted as Additional District and Sessions Judge holding charge of the special CBI and PMLA courts in Panchkula, was booked by the Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on April 17, 2023. The FIR was registered against him, his nephew Ajay Parmar, and M3M India Pvt Ltd director Roop Bansal under Sections 7, 8, 11 and 13 of the PC Act and Section 120-B IPC.
The charges relate to allegations of bribery, obtaining undue advantage, criminal misconduct by a public servant, and conspiracy. Parmar is accused of showing undue favour to real estate developers, including the Bansal brothers of M3M and Lalit Goyal of the IREO Group, in cases pending before his court.
High Court’s Recommendation and Chargesheet
The Punjab and Haryana High Court in January 2025 recommended that Parmar be tried in a court of law after examining the chargesheet prepared by the ACB. Following 18 months of investigation, the ACB sought the state government’s approval for prosecution, which has now been granted.
“The ACB will now file a chargesheet in the trial court arraigning the under suspension judicial officer as an accused in the case to face trial,” a senior official confirmed.
In an earlier order dated January 7, 2025, special PMLA judge Rajeev Goyal had noted: “There are investigative findings in favour of the commission of the predicate offence which, therefore, exists.”
Basis of Case: Chats and Recordings
The FIR was based on WhatsApp chats, phone recordings, and source-based information. The chats allegedly revealed Parmar demanding between ₹5–7 crore to extend undue benefits to the M3M owners in ED cases. According to the FIR, the conversations showed that ₹5 crore had already been paid to him in connection with an IREO case.
The messages were reportedly exchanged from Parmar’s mobile phone and that of his nephew Ajay Parmar, who was employed with M3M as a legal adviser.
Suspension and Arrest
Parmar was questioned during a raid at his official residence in Panchkula on April 18, 2023 and was subsequently suspended by the then Chief Justice of the High Court on April 27, 2023.
He was arrested by the ACB in August 2023 and later granted bail in November 2023. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also registered a money-laundering case against him, relying on the ACB FIR.
The case also links to the ongoing probes against real estate developer Lalit Goyal, who was arrested by the ED in November 2021 in connection with alleged cheating of homebuyers. The prosecution complaint against him was filed in February 2022 before the special PMLA court in Panchkula.
With the Haryana government’s sanction now in place, Parmar will formally face trial for corruption and misconduct, in what officials describe as one of the most high-profile judicial corruption cases in the region.
