Delhi HC junks Sanjay Bhandari’s plea challenging ‘Fugitive Offender’ tag

THe new delhi heights margaret court on th dismissed UK-based arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari’s petition against a tribulation court’s order declaring him a fugitive economic offender (FEO).“The appeal is dismissed,” a bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said.A detailed copy of the verdict is yet to be uploaded.The trial court on July 5, 2025, declared Bhandari as FEO in the proceedings initiated by Enforcement Directorate (ED). This development allowed the probe agency to confiscate his properties anywhere in the world and bar him from filing or defending any civil proceedings in India. The court had ruled that the FEO tag was another way of coercing Bhandari to come back to India, by attachment, confiscation of his properties.In his petition before the high court, Bhandari had asserted that ED’s application to declare him as FEO was “premature,” as the agency had filed it without a final assessment order (AO) confirming that the alleged tax evasion exceeded ₹100 crore.It added that the probe agency lacked material evidence at the time of initiating the proceedings, and the only document which formed the application’s basis was a letter received from the Income Tax (IT) department in July 2019, which alleged that the proceeds of crime were more than ₹100 crore.The petition stated that he did not fall within the definition of FEO since the non-bailable warrants issued against him in proceedings initiated by the IT department under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, in 2018, were already executed, as he was arrested and granted bail.The ED’s lawyers, additional solicitor general SV Raju and special counsel Zoheb Hossain, opposed the petition, stating that the agency possessed sufficient evidence indicating tax evasion of over ₹100 crore by UK-based arms dealer Bhandari, while initiating proceedings to declare him a FEO.Also Read:Delhi HC reserves verdict on Sanjay Bhandari appeal against fugitive economic offender tagThe law officer further submitted that the final AO confirming such tax evasion was not a prerequisite for initiating proceedings to declare an individual a fugitive. The agency’s counsel had submitted that the trial court’s decision was supported by the 2020 AO, which detailed undisclosed income and tax evasion amounting to ₹196 crore.Besides ED, Bhandari is under investigation by multiple agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the IT department, and Delhi Police, for money laundering, violation of foreign exchange, and black money laws. Bhandari, who has access to sensitive defence documents, is also being investigated under the Official Secrets Act.The money laundering charges stemmed from the IT department’s complaint. ED’s probe against Bhandari, in which Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra is also under the scanner, relates to two properties in London as well as some land parcels in India.He had also been under CBI investigation since 2019, on charges of corruption in a ₹2,985-crore deal in 2009 to procure 75 PC-7 trainer aircraft from Swiss plane maker Pilatus Aircraft and for allegedly laundering money for properties allegedly linked to Vadra in London, in which NRI businessman C C Thampi was arrested by ED in January 2020.Also Read:Delhi court declares arms middleman Sanjay Bhandari a fugitive economic offenderHe fled India in 2016 via Nepal, and an Interpol red notice was issued against him in October 2017.The Indian government sent two extradition requests against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Black Money Act, which were certified by the then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in June 2020. Following this, British authorities arrested him on July 15, 2020. However, he was released on bail pending extradition proceedings.A Westminster court ordered his extradition to India in November 2022, but he challenged the order before the high court. On February 28 last year, the UK high court discharged him in the extradition proceedings, and an appeal filed by the Indian government was rejected on April 4, 2025.