Delhi Court Declares Arms Dealer Sanjay Bhandari a Fugitive Economic Offender

A Delhi court on Saturday declared as a fugitive economic offender a British-based arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.(Photo: AFP) This followed a request by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said a report in the Press Trust of India quoting officials.

The decision was passed according to Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA), 2018. Launched by the Modi government in 2018, the FEOA addressed those economic offenders who escape the country after committing financial frauds worth above 100 crore rupees.

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The ED said that in 2016 Bhandari absconded to the United Kingdom. A UK court newly vetoed a request by Indian authorities to extradite him.

Bhandari and others were booked under a money laundering case by the ED in February 2017. This was in view of a charge sheet already filed by income Tax department under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and imposition of Tax act 2015.

The ED submitted a formal charge sheet later in 2020. The then 63 year old Bhandari migrated to London just a short time after the I-T department had raided his premises in Delhi in year 2016. The case put forward by the ED under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was not far behind.

There has also been an investigation on Bhandaris purported connection with Robert Vadra the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

In an additional charge sheet, filed in 2023, the ED said that Bhandari had purchased a house at 12, Bryanston Square, London in 2009, and refurbished it, “as per the directions of Robert Vadra and the funds for renovation were provided by Robert Vadra”.

In a stout denial, Vadra has said, he has never directly or indirectly owned any property in London. He termed the allegations as a "political witch-hunt" and said that he was being "hounded and harassed" over political reasons.

Earlier this month, he was summoned once again regarding the 2023 charge sheet of ED.

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Accused of hiding overseas assets

Bhandari who is suspected of being tax resident in India in 2015 is facing allegations of hiding of foreign assets, hiding his assets by using backdated document and lying to Indian tax authority stating that he had no wealth outside India.

He has however denied all these allegations. Against the request of The ED to declare Bhandari a fugitive, his lawyer argued, “Client’s stay could not be called illegal in the UK as he has a legal right to reside in the UK and the GOI is bound by the judgment of the UK court... Bhandari is legally living there, and declaring him a ‘fugitive’ in that scenario is legally wrong.”

The ED has attached the assets of around 21-crore worth of Bhandari under the PMLA.

16th declared fugitive economic offender

Through this announcement, Bhandari is the 16th fugitive economic offender identified by Indian courts. Other names on the list are Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

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