Delhi courtroom declares U.K.-based arms advisor a fugitive financial offender

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal of Tis Hazari courtroom issued the order for declaring Mr. Bhandari a fugitive below the provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) of 2018.

The orders got here on an software moved by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the cash laundering expenses in opposition to Mr. Bhandari and others. This will now allow the central company to confiscate the property owned by Mr. Bhandari, the value of which runs into a number of crores.

The ED final month had appraised the courtroom concerning the U.K. Court denying the extradition of Mr. Bhandari, 63, to India, citing the unsafe situations contained in the Tihar Jail in Delhi.

According to the company, he fled to London in 2016 quickly after the Income Tax (I-T) division raided him in Delhi on account of tax evasion.

His identify additionally cropped-up in the course of the investigation of a cash laundering case in opposition to Robert Vadra, husband of Congress chief Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the ED claimed. The company filed the primary cost sheet on this case in 2020, adopted by a supplementary chargesheet in 2023 by which it alleged that Mr. Bhandari “acquired” a property in London in 2009 and received it renovated “as per the instructions and funding given by Mr. Vadra”.

Mr. Vadra, nevertheless, denied proudly owning any property in London and termed the accusations levelled by the ED a political witch-hunt in opposition to him.