Justice KV Viswanathan recuses from hearing pleas in M3M directors money-laundering case

The Supreme Court's Justice KV Viswanathan on Monday recused from hearing petitions relating to the money-laundering case registered against the directors of the Gurugram-based realty group M3M..A vacation bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and KV Viswanathan directed that the matter be placed before an appropriate bench on Tuesday..The top court was hearing a batch of pleas, including challenges to a recent Delhi High Court order that had refused to interfere with the arrest of Basant and Pankaj Bansal in a money-laundering investigation related to a bribery case against a former judge.The Bansals were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 14 and sent to five days of custody by a special court in Haryana’s Panchkula.The brothers had argued that such custody amounted to illegal detention and was an effort to avoid the High Court’s orders granting them protection from coercive action in another money laundering case..At the outset, of today's hearing, Justice Viswanathan indicated that he had appeared for the co-accused in connected matters arising out of the case.Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Bansals, then quipped in lighter vein that since the judge as a senior counsel had appeared in so many cases, he would have to recuse from multiple matters.'Like I was telling my brother judge, when in doubt (recuse)," Justice Viswanathan remarked.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the ED..The Bansal brothers were arrested by the Haryana Police’s Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) in relation to a FIR registered earlier this year against former Special Judge CBI/ED, Sudhir Parmar.The ED claimed that it had received information that Parmar was showing favouritism to the accused in the money laundering case regarding real estate firm IREO. As the ACB registered the case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had suspended Parmar.