Chandigarh, Sept. 25 -- The Haryana government has accorded sanction to prosecute under suspension former CBI judge, Sudhir Parmar for alleged corruption and criminal misconduct. Top officials said that the sanction to prosecute Parmar, a member of Haryana superior judicial services in the rank of an additional district and sessions judge, was accorded recently by the state government under section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The sanction is necessary to prosecute a public servant booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act. This would mean that the under suspension judicial officer who was booked by the Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) in April 2023 will now face criminal trial in a court of law. An FIR was registered against the judicial officer, his nephew, Ajay Parmar and director of real estate company M3M India Pvt Ltd Roop Bansal by the ACB under sections 7, 8, 11 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B of the IPC for offences relating to a public servant being bribed, public servant obtaining undue advantage from a person concerned in proceeding or business transacted by such public servant and criminal misconduct by a public servant; and criminal conspiracy. Parmar was holding the charge of special CBI and PMLA courts in Panchkula when he was booked by the ACB on April 17, 2023. "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,'' said a top functionary. The Punjab and Haryana high court had earlier in January recommended that Parmar be tried by a court of law. The HC made the recommendation to the state government after examining the chargesheet prepared by the ACB. The ACB after investigating the matter for about 18 months had sought sanction of the state government to prosecute Parmar. The chargesheet was then sent to the high court by the investigating agency for its recommendation on the matter. As per norms prescribed by the high court, the state government should call for and follow the recommendation of the high court in such matters. "There are investigative findings in favour of the commission of the predicate offence which, therefore, exists," special PMLA judge Rajeev Goyal had observed in his January 7, 2025 order with regards to ACB seeking sanction to prosecute the judicial officer. The FIR was registered by ACB on the basis of "reliable source information", WhatsApp chats and recordings of the accused. The judicial officer has been accused of alleged favouritism to real estate developers Roop Bansal and his brother Basant Bansal of M3M and Lalit Goyal of IREO Group, as per the FIR registered by the ACB. The Bansals and Goyal were named as accused by the CBI and the ED in cases pending before the special CBI court, a court that was presided over by Parmar. Parmar was presiding over the trial of several CBI and ED cases involving real estate developers, retired bureaucrats and politicians. He was questioned by an ACB team on April 18, 2023 during a raid at his official residence in Panchkula. He was placed under suspension by the HC chief justice on April 27, 2023 after an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court was filed by the HC seeking permission of the apex court to transfer Parmar "in view of gravity and seriousness of the matter". The ACB FIR, on whose basis the Enforcement Directorate also registered a enforcement case information report (ECIR) to probe money laundering had arrested Parmar in August 2023 but he was granted bail in November 2023. According to the ACB FIR "reliable source(-based) information" disclosed instances of grave misconduct, abuse of official position and demand/acceptance of undue advantage/bribe from the accused in cases pending in Parmar's court. The ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and arrested Lalit Goyal, vice-chairman and managing director of realty giant IREO Group in November 2021 for allegedly cheating home buyers and others. In February 2022, ED had presented a prosecution complaint (challan) against Goyal in the special PMLA court in Panchkula. "The source has provided screenshots of WhatsApp chats between Parmar and another person in which he demandsRs.5 crore toRs.7 crore for helping the M3M owners in ED cases and requests the person chatting with him to receive the bribe on his behalf. In the same chat, the person says Rs.5 crore has already been given to Sudhir Parmar by the accused in the IREO case," the FIR said. The WhatsApp chats were allegedly made from Parmar's own mobile device as well as that of his nephew, Ajay Parmar, employed by M3M as a legal adviser, the FIR said....