UK: Sanjay Bhandari, a fugitive arms dealer, is granted permission to file an appeal against his extradition to India

Sanjay Bhandari, a defense industry consultant who is sought in India on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering, was granted permission by the London High Court to appeal against his extradition decision on Thursday.

In response to a decision made by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in November 2022, the UK Secretary of State, Suella Braverman, had then ordered Bhandari’s extradition to face criminal proceedings in India last year. But the 62-year-old businessman had asked for permission to file an appeal in the High Court against District Judge Michael Snow’s decision. Through his company, Offset India Solutions, he provided consulting services to defense manufacturers vying for contracts with the Indian government.

Later this year, the case will go forward with a four-day substantive hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice. At the end of a half-day renewal appeal hearing on Thursday, Justice Pushpinder Saini said, “I am satisfied that the grounds are reasonably arguable.” Bhandari, who was represented by Janes Solicitors, had attempted to appeal the lower court’s decision on eight grounds. Justice Robert Jay had accepted three of these reasons in a court order last October, and the other four were allowed at this week’s hearing.

“Grounds 3, 4, and 5 provide compelling reasons that the whole Court should take into account. According to Justice Jay’s ruling from the previous year, “the additional evidence will be considered at the substantive hearing de bene esse, without prejudice to the respondent’s (government of India) case that it is not decisive.”

In addition to these grounds—which address human rights violations under Article 3 of the European Convention, the reversal of the burden of proof, and procedural delays—Judge Saini also authorized an appeal under grounds 1, 2, and 6, which he claimed are pertinent to ground 5 because they address the possibility of protracted pretrial detention in an Indian jail prior to an extradition hearing.

The appeal was based on the assertion that Bhandari had a prima facie case against him and that the District Judge had “erred in his conclusions” about the offenses being extradition offenses. Bhandari’s attorneys, Edward Fitzgerald and James Stansfeld, point out that “he [Snow] erred in both his conclusions that the conduct would constitute offences in this jurisdiction, and that there is admissible evidence to establish a prima facie case for each offence.”

The Indian government had said that there was “no merit in any of the renewed grounds of appeal and permission ought to be refused,” with attorney Alex du Sautoy representing the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in their place. The case pertains to two requests for extradition made by Indian authorities. The first request was made in response to a charge of money laundering, which is against Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 in India.

The second request relates to a charge of intentionally trying to avoid paying taxes, penalties, or interest that are imposed or charged under the Black Money Act 2015 in violation of Section 51 of that act in India. Bhandari, who at the time of the incident in 2015 was considered an Indian tax resident, is charged with hiding foreign assets, using backdated documentation, profiting from assets not disclosed to Indian tax authorities, and then lying to the authorities about his lack of foreign assets.

Since the UK Home Office approved his first request for extradition in June 2020, he has been fighting it and refuting the accusations made against him. The High Court will now consider the CPS’s argument—which is on behalf of the Indian authorities—that Bhandari’s actions amounted to “fraud by false representation” under the British legal system.