Delhi High Court Judge Recuses From Hearing Sanjay Bhandari's Plea Challenging "Fugitive Economic Offender" Tag

A Judge of the Delhi High Court has recused himself from hearing a plea by UK-based arms consultant Sanjay Bhandari.

The said plea was filed against the Order of the Trial Court which declared Bhandari 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 case 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, 2025.

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.

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".

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 Advocate Zoheb Hussain said that this was "extremely unfair".

As both the counsels remained adamant, the Judge said that he cannot hear the matter in this manner, ordering, "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, had declared Bhandari a "fugitive economic offender" on a plea by the ED. District Judge (Tis Hazari) Sanjeev Aggarwal said in his Order that 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 allowed 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 that 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 aged 63 years, had 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, 2002 (PMLA) in February 2017, taking cognisance of an I-T chargesheet filed against him under the anti-black money law of 2015.

The Court noted that the undisclosed foreign income or assets of Bhandari were worth Rs. 655 crores and the total tax evaded by him, including penalty and interest, was Rs. 196 crores. The ED had filed its first chargesheet against Bhandari in 2020.

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.

Bhandari's assets worth about Rs. 21 crores have been attached by the ED under PMLA.

With PTI Inputs