The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday took possession of an expensive South Delhi property of London-based fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, who is facing extradition proceedings to undergo trial here in a money laundering case. The property is located in Panchsheel Shopping Complex in Panchsheel Park and is registered under the name of SB Hospitality and Services. The ED charged that Bhandari tried “creating structure and back-dated documents” to hide this and many other properties , from the glare of the government agencies.

The name of Bhandari’s firm was, interestingly, struck off from the records of the Registrar of Companies, ED officials alleged. The real estate which belongs to Bhandari, was attached by the ED in June 2017 on the charges of being bought of laundered money. On July 5, the Appellate Tribunal of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) confirmed ED’s attachment order, the agency stated.

Bhandari, who is on the run from the India government since 2016, is facing the UK government’s order of extradition on requests from Indian investigating agencies. He has been accused of hiding his foreign assets and income from abroad over 17 months from July 1, 2015, while declaring his tax returns. He is also an accused in a CBI case registered in 2019 to probe corruption in the procurement of Pilatus trainer aircraft in 2009. The middleman and arms dealer is also under the lens for purchasing a house in London for businessman Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.