Fugitive economic offender tag for arms middleman Sanjay Bhandari

A Delhi court on Saturday declared wanted London-based arms middleman Sanjay Bhandari (63) a “fugitive economic offender” (FEO). The order, which came on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), allows the agency to confiscate his assets worth crores of rupees.

The court ruled that while the extradition attempt of Indian agencies (for Bhandari) might have failed — a UK court earlier this year discharged him from extradition proceedings — it didn’t make him “angel or immune from the prosecution for the violation of Indian laws”. It said the FEO tag was another way of “making one come back to India to face trial by coercing him to return by attachment, confiscation of the properties” and “disentitling such fugitive economic offenders from putting forward or defending any civil claim”.

Deciding ED’s request under the FEO filed in 2019, special judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said in his judgement that “this court is satisfied that Sanjay 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)”.

Noting that Bhandari had wilfully refused to come to India to face criminal prosecution, the judge said: “This court is satisfied that the total value of the schedule offence is Rs 100 crores or more i.e. the schedule to the present FEO Act, which is Section 51 of the Black Money Act, is a requisite condition for declaring an individual an FEO”.

Rejecting Bhandari’s argument that the UK high court order made him eligible to stay in London and therefore the FEO won’t apply to him, the judge further said: “The argument is without any substance, as the extradition failure will not make any difference since the extradition of the accused was one of the means to bring the accused to India to face trial in the said offence under Section 51 of the Black Money Act.”

Bhandari had fled to London in 2016, soon after the Income Tax Department raided him in Delhi. The ED had filed a criminal case against him and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in February 2017, taking cognisance of an I-T Department chargesheet filed against him under the anti-black money law of 2015.

With this, 16 persons, including liquor baron Vijay Mallya and diamond trader Nirav Modi, have so far been declared FEOs by different courts.

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