Defence middleman Sanjay Bhandari has won his appeal against extradition to India and has been discharged by the London High Court. The 62-year-old Indian national appealed against the decision to extradite him in December saying that he could face violence and extortion in Tihar jail if he was extradited to India. The judgment came on Friday in his favour on the basis of a breach of Article 3 and 6. He claimed he would face torture, extortion and violence in Tihar jail and a lack of fair trial in India. The high court judges have agreed with him and he has been discharged.
Tax evasion and money laundering
Sanjay Bhandari is a UK-based arms dealer who was a resident of India for tax purposes in 2015. he used to offer consultancy services to defence manufacturers bidding for Indian government contracts through his firm Offset India sSolutions. He was accused of tax evasion and money laundering in India when he fled to the UK in 2016.
India made two extradition requests for Bhandari, the first concerning an allegation of money laundering, contrary to Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 in India. The second was on an allegation of wilfully attempting to evade a tax, penalty or interest chargeable or imposable under the Black Money Act 2015 contrary to Section 51 of that act in India.
While residing in India, Bhandari did not reveal overseas assets, used backdated documents benefitting from the assets that he did not declare to the Indian tax authorities.
He denied the allegations and was fighting his extradition since the first request was certified by the UK Home Office in June 2020.