New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 21 crore of controversial defence consultant Sanjay Bhandari in connection with a money laundering probe against him.
This is the first attachment of assets order issued by the Central probe agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED took cognisance of the new anti-black money act that was notified last year to check the menace and catch hold of those who have stashed illegal funds or properties abroad.
The income-tax department had booked Mr Bhandari under the new act, called the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015. Under this law, cases of overseas illegal assets, which till recently were probed under the I-T Act, 1961, attract a steep 120 per cent tax and penalty on undisclosed foreign assets and income, besides carrying a jail term of up to 10 years.
Mr Bhandari’s case came to light after tax sleuths searched his premises last year and found “sensitive” official defence documents.
