Delhi Police register case against controversial arms dealer Bhandari

The case has been registered under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) in connection with the recovery of confidential Defence Ministry documents from his house in South Delhi`s Defence Colony.

Sanjay Bhandari was already under the radar of the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate for alleged property links with Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

A police official shared that an SIT will be formed to probe the matter in which Bhandari along with his close associate Ashok Shankar, will be quizzed and their statements will be corroborated with some Defence Ministry officials who will also be asked to join the investigation once Bhandari is questioned.

The official said that Bhandari and Ashok Shankar would be called for questioning at the Parliament Street police station in the coming week. Meanwhile, letters have been written to concerned authorities to ensure that they (Bhandari and Ashok Shankar) are not allowed to fly out of the country. The FIR was registered on Friday by Colonel Puneet Ahuja, an officer posted in the Ministry of Defence, alleging that the Ministry is the custodian of the classified documents that were recovered in the raid.

According to the FIR the documents pertain to policy planning and Force Development branch of the Defence Ministry. Bhandari is already under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income-Tax (I-T) Department for allegedly holding a `benami` property in London.

The official said that taking cognisance of the complaint, they registered a case under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act. The IT Department had been carrying out an investigation against Bhandari and the OIS Group in connection with a tax evasion case.Earlier in June, the IT Department carried out searches on two Bengaluru-based business premises associated with defence consultant Sanjay Bhandari, who is under investigation for ascertaining the sources of about Rs.70 crore received by his companies between 2009 and 2014.

Based on a tip-off,  police conducted a raid to recover them. Post the raids, the Defence Ministry was informed about the matter. Sources said that the matter was initially passed on to the CBI but after the Ministry asked Delhi police to take action, they lodged an FIR.