New Delhi, Jul 31 (PTI) A judge of the Delhi High Court on Thursday recused himself from hearing a plea by UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari challenging a trial court’s order declaring him a “fugitive economic offender”.
Justice Girish Kathpalia, who was dictating the order and fixing the hearing for Friday on the maintainability of the plea, transferred the matter to another bench when the counsel for Bhandari and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) could not come to a consensus on the date of hearing.
The case is listed before the trial court on August 2.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Bhandari, insisted that the matter be heard today itself as he was not available on Thursday, or it be heard after some days till when the court should direct the ED not to confiscate Bhandari’s assets.
However, ED’s counsel was of the view that the court should not pass any interim order without hearing the agency’s submissions, as he had preliminary objection on the maintainability of the plea and that it be heard on Friday itself.
As the court was dictating the order, Sibal said, “Why don’t you (ED counsel) just get an order in your favour now and get it all done. Your lordship may pass any order, let it (assets) be confiscated, it does not matter.” In reply, ED’s lawyer Zoheb Hussain said this was “extremely unfair”.
As both the counsels remained adamant, the judge said it cannot hear the matter in this manner, stating, “List before some other bench subject to orders of the judge in-charge of the criminal side tomorrow itself at 10:30 am.” 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.
District Judge (Tis Hazari) Sanjeev Aggarwal said in his order 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 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 had said the “extradition attempt may have failed, but it will not make the 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.
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 court said when an accused chooses not to return to India, he cannot take the plea of avoiding all the legal consequences, including that of Section 14 of the FEO Act.
“In any case, those who play with fire should be known to be aware of its consequences,” it said.
The 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 ARI
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