New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a fresh chargesheet against businessman Robert Vadra, this time in a money-laundering case linked to UK-based defence and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
Vadra, the ninth accused in the case, has been named in the chargesheet along with Bhandari, Sumit Chhadha, Sanjeev Kapoor, Anirudh Wadhwa, Santech International FZC, Offset India Solutions FZC, Shamlan Gros-1 Inc and Cheruvathur Chakkutty Thampi.
This is the first time Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra has been named as an accused in the case. His statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in July.
The prosecution complaint was filed in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court, after
The chargesheet, placed before Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi, will be considered on December 6.
This is the second money-laundering chargesheet against Vadra, after the ED filed a separate prosecution complaint in July, in a case related to alleged irregularities in a land deal in Haryana’s Shikohpur.
Vadra is also under ED lens in a third money-laundering case – for alleged financial irregularities in a land deal in Bikaner.
The Bhandari arms deal case is a long-running probe into alleged foreign assets and illicit financial links.
It relates to ED’s findings, reported in a 2023 chargesheet, claiming that Bhandari acquired a property at 12, Bryanston Square in London in 2009 and got it renovated “as per the directions of Vadra and the funds for renovation were provided by Robert Vadra.”
However, Vadra has denied any ownership, direct or indirect, of property in London, and said that the allegations being politically motivated.
The 63-year-old Bhandari, who was raided by the IT department, fled India in 2016. Bhandari was declared a fugitive economic offender by a Delhi court earlier this year.
Bhandari was discharged by the British Supreme Court in an extradition case, prompting India to file a petition to appeal to the UK top court. But a UK court rejected India’s plea, thereby reducing chances of bringing Bhandari back to India and face legal proceedings.
