Delhi HC to hear on Aug 8 Sanjay Bhandari's plea challenging 'fugitive offender' tag

New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday said it would hear further arguments on August 8 on a plea by UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari that challenged a trial court's order declaring him a "fugitive economic offender".

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna heard part of the arguments on Bhandari's plea seeking to defer the trial court proceedings scheduled for Saturday.

As the court was about to reserve its order on the interim application, the ED's counsel submitted that the appeal challenging the trial court's order be heard finally, as the arguments advanced on Friday essentially cover the merits of the case.

The court listed the matter for August 8 for hearing the remaining arguments and asked the parties to file their written submissions.

Bhandari's counsel submitted that if the plea has to be decided finally on merits, the trial court proceedings be deferred. He also requested that the confiscation of Bhandari's assets be halted.

The court, however, refused to pass an order in this regard and said, "There is no question because if the (trial court) order goes, the confiscation of assets will automatically go. Needless to say whatever subsequent proceedings are being undertaken by the special judge will be subject to the outcome of this appeal." Justice Krishna said she will decide the plea within 15 days.

On July 31, the plea was listed before Justice Girish Kathpalia, who recused from hearing the matter when the counsel for Bhandari and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) could not come to a consensus on the date of the hearing.

The ED has also raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the plea.

The trial court on July 5 declared Bhandari a "fugitive economic offender" on a plea by the ED, an order that will allow the agency to confiscate all his assets worth crores of rupees.

It said in the order that the court was satisfied that "Sanjay Bhandari, S/o Late R K Bhandari, is a fugitive economic offender under Section 12(1) of the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act, 2018, and is declared as such under the above provision(s) of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018".

The order came as a shot in the arm for the federal probe agency, as it will now be able to confiscate assets worth crores of rupees of Bhandari, whose chances to come to India have been virtually nullified after a UK court recently ruled against his extradition.

Bhandari's legal team, while opposing the ED's move to get him declared a fugitive offender, claimed that its "client's stay could not be called illegal in the UK as he has a legal right to reside in the UK and the government of India 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 trial court said the "extradition attempt may have failed, but it will not make the accused an angel or immune from 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.

The ED filed a criminal case against Bhandari and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in February 2017, taking cognisance of an I-T chargesheet filed against him under the anti-black money law of 2015.

The trial court held that the undisclosed foreign income or assets of Bhandari were worth Rs 655 crore and the total tax evaded by him, including penalty and interest, was Rs 196 crore.

The ED filed its first chargesheet against Bhandari in 2020.

The agency is probing Bhandari's links with Robert Vadra, the businessman husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The ED filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case in 2023, 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".

Vadra has denied owning any London property directly or indirectly, and termed the charges a "political witch-hunt" against him, claiming that he is being "hounded and harassed" to subserve political ends.

Bhandari, who was a resident in India for tax purposes in 2015, is also accused of concealing overseas assets using backdated documents, benefitting from the assets not declared to Indian tax authorities, and then falsely informing the authorities that he did not possess any overseas assets.

He, however, has denied the allegations.

Bhandari's assets worth about Rs 21 crore have been attached by the ED under PMLA. PTI SKV SKV KSS KSS