Sanjay Bhandari plea against attempted tax evasion proceedings: HC seeks Income Tax Dept stand

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response of the Income Tax Department on a plea by arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari who has challenged the proceedings initiated against him, under the black money law, for attempted tax evasion and non-disclosure of foreign assets.

Justice Anu Malhotra issued notice to the tax department and sought its stand on Bhandari's plea by February 24. The court also directed the agency to place before it all the records pertaining to the case. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that for proceedings for attempted tax evasion to be initiated, first there has to be an assessment.

"But till date there has been no assessment," he told the court.

He said the allegations in the complaint against his client were that he did not disclose his foreign assets, properties and bank accounts. However, the notices sent to Bhandari did not contain details of such assets, properties and bank accounts which he had allegedly not disclosed, Sibal told the high court.

Apart from proceedings under the Black Money Act, Bhandari is facing a money laundering case and is also an accused in a 2016 case under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) relating to the recovery of confidential documents of the Ministry of Defence from his residence during an Income Tax raid in 2016. He was declared a proclaimed offender by a trial court here in January 2018, but in July 2018 the order was set aside by the high court.

During the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe in the money laundering case, the agency had found that Bhandari had helped Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in purchasing a property in the UK. The ED has lodged a money laundering case against Vadra and his close aide Manoj Arora, accusing them of acquiring the London property in an illegal manner.