Court issues summons to Sanjay Bhandari in money laundering case

A special PMLA court has issued summons to alleged defence middleman Sanjay Bhandari and asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to expedite the process of his extradition, the central agency said on Friday.

The court's order came on Thursday after it took cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the ED against Bhandari, linked foreign companies and others on June 1 under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The special judge at Rouse Avenue Court here said, "Issued summons to the accused persons and directed the ED to expedite the process of extradition against Sanjay Bhandari pending before UK authorities so that he can be brought to India for trial in accordance with law."

The agency said its probe found that "Bhandari stashed black money abroad with the assistance of his accomplices to evade taxes, causing huge financial loss to the national exchequer".

"Bhandari owned assets in various foreign jurisdictions, incorporated various entities in UAE as owner or beneficial owner and also had financial interest in an entity incorporated in Panama.

"It was revealed that all those foreign assets and entities were not disclosed by Bhandari to Income Tax authorities in India," it claimed.

The ED filed a criminal case of money laundering against him and others in February, 2017 taking cognisance of an Income Tax Department chargesheet filed against him under the anti-black money law of 2015.

Bhandari, who the central agency says has never cooperated with it in the probe, is absconding from the country and was last stated to be in the UK.

He is being probed by the ED in two other money laundering cases, apart from the CBI, Income Tax Department and the Delhi Police for various criminal charges of corruption and tax evasion.

Bhandari's case first came to light after the I-T Department conducted searches against him in April, 2016 and recovered certain "sensitive" official defence documents from his premises.