ED files chargesheet against Robert Vadra in Sanjay Bhandari case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a money laundering case linked to UK-based arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari on Thursday. The chargesheet has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi and the next hearing is scheduled on December 6, 2025. The agency had earlier filed the first chargesheet in the case in 2023 and was probing Bhandaris links with Vadra related to a house located in London. The ED alleged that Bhandari acquired the 12, Bryanston Square house in London in 2009 and got it renovated as per the directions of Robert Vadra, who provided the funds for the renovation. He used to decide about the interiors of the property and he used to stay in the said property even though the ownership of the property keep changing from Sanjay Bhandari to C C Thampi to Cheru. The evidences collected by ED revealed that Robert Vadra used this property during all these times when the property was in benami names, the source said. ED after earlier questioned and confronted Vadra about the evidences gathered from other countries to which he did not provide any satisfactory reply. The evidence gathered by ED indicates that the property acquired by Sanjay Bhandari was beneficially used by Robert Vadra for his personal use, a source. Vadra has denied that he owned any London property directly or indirectly and termed the charges a political witch hunt. The ED filed a criminal case against Bhandari and others under the PMLA in February 2017, taking cognisance of the I-T department chargesheet filed against him under the anti-black money law of 2015.. Bhandari fled to London in 2016, soon after the income tax department raided his premises in Delhi. Two extradition requests against him in the UK were blocked earlier this year by a UK court, citing his potential mistreatment in Indian prisons.