The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against Chinese smartphone maker Vivo-India and four of its officials in a high-profile money-laundering case. The chargesheet was filed on Thursday in the court of special judge Kiran Gupta in New Delhi. The court has scheduled a hearing on December 13 to consider whether to take cognisance of the chargesheet. The agency has accused Vivo-India of cheating the central government through a network it had set up in the country.
The chargesheet names four officials of Vivo-India, including the Managing Director of Lava International mobile company, Hari Om Rai, a Chinese national Guangwen, alias Andrew Kuang, and two chartered accountants, Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik, as accused.
All the accused officials are currently in judicial custody. The agency claims that these officials enabled Vivo-India to make wrongful gains, thereby undermining the economic sovereignty of India.
The ED had conducted raids at various premises of the company and individuals linked to it in July last year and had claimed to have busted a major money-laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies. The agency alleged that Vivo-India had illegally transferred Rs 62,476 crore to China to avoid paying taxes in India.
The ED had filed a case on February 3 this year after studying a Delhi Police FIR of December last year against a company associated with Vivo-India, Grand Prospect International Communication Pvt Ltd (GPICPL), its directors, shareholders, and other professionals.
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