Delhi High Court Upholds 'Fugitive Economic Offender' Tag For UK-Based Arms Consultant Sanjay Bhandari

The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea filed by UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari challenging a trial court order declaring him as a “fugitive economic offender”.

“Appeal dismissed,” Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said while pronouncing the verdict.

Bhandari was represented by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal with Advocates Avneesh Arputham, Aparajita Jamwal and Ankit Sharma.

ED was represented by ASG SV RAJU with Special Counsel Soheb Hossain, Panel Counsel Vivek Gurnani and Advocates Kartik Sabharwal, Pranjal Tripathi and Satyam.

The impugned order was passed by District Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal of Tis Hazari Courts on July 05 last year. The judge had said that he was satisfied that Bhandari is a fugitive economic offender under Section 12(1) of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.

The trial court had said the attempt to extradite Bhandari to India may have failed, but it will not make “accused an angel or immune from the prosecution for the violation of Indian laws”.

Bhandari (63) fled to London in 2016, soon after the Income-Tax (I-T) Department raided him in Delhi. His assets worth about Rs. 21 crore have been attached by the ED under PMLA.

In February, 2017, ED had filed a criminal case against Bhandari and others under the PMLA after taking cognisance of an I-T chargesheet filed against him.

The ED filed its first chargesheet against Bhandari in the year 2020. This was after ED started investigating Bhandari's links with Robert Vadra- husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

In 2023, ED filed a supplementary chargesheet alleging that Bhandari acquired the 12, Bryanston Square house in London in 2009 and got it renovated “as per the directions of Robert Vadra and the funds for renovation were provided by Robert Vadra”.

Title: Sanjay Bhandari v. ED