Court declares arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari 'fugitive economic offender'

Delhi court declares UK-based arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari a fugitive economic offender under FEOA. UK recently denied his extradition to India

A Delhi court on Saturday officially declared UK-based arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari a "fugitive economic offender". This was done in response to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), according to a report by the Press Trust of India, quoting officials.

 

The ruling was made under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA), 2018. The FEOA was introduced in 2018 by the Modi government to deal with economic offenders who flee the country after committing financial frauds involving sums over ₹100 crore.

 

The ED stated that Bhandari "absconded" to the United Kingdom in 2016. A request by Indian authorities to extradite him was recently rejected by a UK court. 

 

 

In February 2017, the ED registered a money laundering case against Bhandari and others. This was based on a charge sheet earlier filed by the Income Tax department under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

 

A formal charge sheet was later submitted by the ED in 2020. Bhandari, aged 63, left for London shortly after the I-T department raided his premises in Delhi in 2016. The ED’s case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) followed soon after.

Alleged links to Robert Vadra

Investigations have also focused on Bhandari’s alleged ties to Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

 

In a supplementary charge sheet filed in 2023, the ED claimed Bhandari bought a house at 12, Bryanston Square, London in 2009 and renovated it “as per the directions of Robert Vadra and the funds for renovation were provided by Robert Vadra”.

 

Vadra has strongly denied any involvement, saying he has never owned any property in London, directly or indirectly. He described the allegations as a “political witch-hunt” and stated he was being “hounded and harassed” for political reasons.

 

Last month, he received fresh summons in relation to the ED’s 2023 charge sheet.

Accused of hiding overseas assets

Bhandari, who was considered a tax resident of India in 2015, is accused of concealing foreign assets, using backdated documents, and misleading Indian tax authorities by claiming he held no assets abroad.

 

However, he has denied all such allegations. Opposing the ED’s plea to label 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 Bhandari’s assets worth around ₹21 crore under the PMLA.

16th declared fugitive economic offender

With this declaration, Bhandari becomes the 16th person to be named a fugitive economic offender by Indian courts. Others on the list include Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.