ED files chargesheet against Robert Vadra in London asset case linked to fugitive Sanjay Bhandari

New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a chargesheet against businessman Robert Vadra, husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a money laundering case linked to fugitive UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari, officials said.

The supplementary prosecution complaint has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here, they said.

The case has been listed for cognisance proceedings on December 6, the officials said.

This is the second money laundering chargesheet against Vadra. In July, he was chargesheeted by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in a land deal in Haryana's Shikohpur.

Vadra, 56, has been questioned by the ED in the Bhandari-linked case in the past.

There was no immediate response from Vadra or his legal team.

The ED filed a criminal case against Bhandari and others under the PMLA in February 2017, taking cognisance of an Income Tax department chargesheet filed against him under the anti-black money law of 2015.

In the earlier chargesheet filed in this case in 2023, the ED alleged that Bhandari "acquired" the 12, Bryanston Square house located 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".

Officials said the ED probe found that Vadra was "assisting" Bhandari and "using" the London property which was nothing but "proceeds of crime" under the provisions of the anti-money laundering law.

Vadra has consistently denied that he owned any London property directly or indirectly. Terming the ED charges a political witch hunt against him, he has said that he was being "hounded and harassed" to subserve political ends.

The agency, officials said, confronted and questioned Vadra on certain evidence gathered in this case from other countries, to which he allegedly did not provide a "satisfactory" reply.

The property acquired by Bhandari was "beneficially" used by Vadra for his personal use and since it was found that Vadra was in possession of the "proceeds of crime", a chargesheet was filed against him seeking his prosecution under the PMLA, they said.

The ED is understood to have found that Vadra furnished the said London property even though it was purchased by Bhandari for 1.9 million GBP.

The funds for furnishing the house were "provided" by Vadra, he used to decide about the interiors of the property and also used to "stay" in the said property even though the ownership of the property kept changing from Bhandari to C C Thampi to one "Mr. Cheru", the officials said.

The evidence collected by ED found that Vadra used this property during the times when the property was in "benami" names, they said.

The 63-year-old arms consultant fled to London in 2016 soon after the I-T department raided him in Delhi.

Bhandari, whose extradition request has been turned down by a UK court, was declared a fugitive economic offender by a Delhi court in July. PTI NES KSS KSS