On November 7, Monday, a court in the United Kingdom allowed for the extradition of fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, whom OpIndia exposed as having links with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, to India. His extradition has been ordered in an ED case initiated by Income Tax Dept under Black Money Act.
#BreakingNews | UK Court orders extradition of arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari over #BlackMoney case@sanjaysuri88 and @ashish_mehrshi with more on this
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In India, Bhandari is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). There were two requests for the extradition of Bhandari. The first was related to tax evasion and the second was related to money laundering. ED had been fighting the case in UK court on behalf of the Indian government.
The ED launched its probe after Income Tax authorities filed a complaint against accused Sanjay Bhandari in court under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Act, 2015 [Black Money Act].
Bhandari, who is connected to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra, fled India in 2016 after being raided at his home for allegedly possessing classified information about the country’s defence acquisitions.
Bhandari, who is now on conditional bail in London, reportedly asked for political asylum, citing persecution by the BJP-led government because of his ties to the opposition Congress party’s first family.
District Judge Michael Snow, who heard the case earlier this year at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, concluded that there are no legal obstacles to his extradition and decided to refer the case to UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who is authorised to order the extradition based on the court order.
Special court asks ED to expedite the extradition of Vadra’s aide Sanjay Bhandari from the UK
In October 2020, a Special Court in Delhi took cognizance of a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate against absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari. The court issued summons to Sanjay Bhandari and others named in a case under sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and directed ED to expedite the process of extradition of Sanjay Bhandari which is pending before UK Authorities so that he can be brought to India for trial in accordance with the law.
On June 1 2020, ED filed a prosecution complaint, which is equivalent to a charge sheet, against Sanjay Bhandari and other co-conspirators, including various companies floated by Bhandari in foreign locations for the purpose of a money laundering case.
Earlier, a complaint under Section 51(1) of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Act, 2015 [Black Money Act] was filed against accused Sanjay Bhandari by Income Tax authorities. It was revealed that accused Sanjay Bhandari stashed black money abroad with the assistance of his accomplices to evade taxes, causing huge financial loss to the national exchequer.
Since the offence under Section 51 of the Black Money Act is a scheduled offence under PMLA, the investigation was handed over to ED. During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Sanjay Bhandari owned assets in various foreign jurisdictions, incorporated various entities in UAE as an owner / beneficial owner and also had a financial interest in an entity incorporated in Panama. It was also revealed that all those foreign assets and entities were not disclosed by Sanjay Bhandari to Income Tax authorities in India.
Apart from the money laundering case, Sanjay Bhandari is accused in several other cases in India, like the Pilatus Aircraft scam and the ONGC/ONGO petro addition (OPAL) case. An FIR filed in July this year by CBI had alleged that Bhandari acted as a middleman and helped M/s Samsung Engineering in approaching unknown public servants working with ONGC/ONGO petro addition (OPAL) to show “undue favour” to the company.
