Sanjay Bhandari has now been linked to ‘kickbacks’ amounting to several hundred crores during the UPA tenure.  |  Photo Credit: Times Now
New Delhi: Fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari has now been linked to ‘kickbacks’ amounting to several hundreds of crores during the UPA tenure. Bank transaction details accessed by Times Now suggest that he had received money over his involvement in multiple defence deals in 2011.
The former defence consultant recently sued French firm Thales, contending that he is owed “commissions” worth Rs 90 crore in connection with a defence deal. Thales incidentally supplies the avionics equipment for Dassault’s Rafale aircraft.
Bhandari had alleged that he was hired by the company to secure a Rs 20,119 crore contract to upgrade Mirage 2000 military jets for the Indian Air Force. According to a report by The Daily Telegraph he claims to have received only Rs 75 crore (out of a total consultancy fee of Rs 167 crore). Allegedly, he had helped the company sell the Mirage jet upgrade by facilitating a meeting with a senior Indian official.
New documents, however, show that this is not the only deal Bhandari has been involved in. Believed to be a close associate of businessman Robert Vadra, Bhandari had purportedly received a kickback of Rs 328 crore in connection with the Pilatus Aircraft deal. He has also been linked to several other business agreements, including the ONGC deal.
Between 2010 and 2012, more than Rs 3.47 crore had been transferred by Thales International, Middle East into a bank account that is believed to belong to the fugitive defence middleman in conjunction with another defence deal relating to aviation products. The company named in the accessed documents is Offset India Solutions – of which Bhandari is a director.
Bhandari, who had fled to the United Kingdom a few years ago, has also reportedly sought political asylum in Britain.
Following the initial revelation – that Bhandari had sought dues worth Rs 90 crore from Thales – the BJP lashed out at the Congress. Highlighting the recent revelations, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia accused the Congress of being keen on ‘filling its treasury’. It was only under the BJP government, he added, that the legal action to get the middleman extradited to India has begun.
Alleging that Bhandari was connected to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, he called upon the Gandhis to respond to the allegations.