Controversial arms dealer and consultant Sanjay Bhandari faces prosecution as the Delhi Police has registered a case 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.
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.
A senior police officer told The Pioneer, on condition of anonymity, “An FIR under Section 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act has been registered in connection with the leak of some classified documents of the Defence Ministry dealing with big-ticket procurements and plans. The photocopies of these classified documents were seized in an Income-Tax raid on the premises of Sanjay Bhandari in April this year.
We have formed a special team to probe the matter as it is a sensitive issue.”
The FIR, which was registered on Friday by Colonel Puneet Ahuja, an officer posted in the Ministry of Defence, alleged that the Ministry is the custodian of the classified documents that were recovered in the raid and possession of copies of classified documents is in contravention of the Official Secrets Act.
According to the FIR the documents pertain to policy planning and Force Development branch of the Defence Ministry.
The FIR read, “One of the premises, covered under Section 132 of the I-T Act was A-341, first floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi. This was a house occupied by Ashok Shankar, a close associate of Sanjay Bhandari and also the director of some of the Offset India Solutions (OIS) Group companies, namely Santech Petroglobal Private limited and Santech Infrastructure Private limited.”
The photocopies recovered reportedly pertain to the purchase of arms and equipments, proposals that were placed before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), which is chaired by the Defence Minister and includes military brass as well as bureaucrats. There were minutes of the 15th Contract Negotiation Committee meeting for purchasing six Additional Flight Refueller Aircraft for the IAF and acquisition proposals of the services as per the provisions of the Defence Procurement Procedure 2013.
“Notes on acquisitions and key meetings were also recovered by the I-T Department,” a source said.
The I-T Department had been carrying out an investigation against Bhandari and the OIS Group in connection with a tax evasion case. They got a tip-off about the classified Defence documents at the house of Bhandari and Shankar and conducted a raid to recover them.
The Defence Ministry was appraised of the matter. The Ministry, after scrutinizing the authenticity of the documents, decided to take action and asked the chief of Integrated Defence Staff to book the culprits under the OSA Act. The matter was initially given to the CBI to probe, but later the Ministry directed the Delhi Police to lodge an FIR, which was registered on Friday.
The officer said they were planning to call Bhandari and Shankar to join the investigation and record their statements, after which they will decide the future course of action.