The High Court also asked the company to maintain the balance amount of ₹251 crore in the bank accounts, which was at the time of freezing the accounts, and this amount would not be used till further orders.
The High Court also asked the company to maintain the balance amount of ₹251 crore in the bank accounts, which was at the time of freezing the accounts, and this amount would not be used till further orders.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed Chinese smartphone maker Vivo to operate its various bank accounts in connection with a money-laundering probe by the Enforcement Directorate, subject to submission of a bank guarantee of Rs 950 crore with the agency within a week. .
Justice Yashwant Verma also directed the company to give details of its remittances to the ED and issued notice to the probe agency on Vivo’s plea, seeking quashing of the order freezing its various bank accounts.
The ED argued that at present the proceeds of the offense have been fixed at ₹ 1200 crore.
The High Court also asked the company to maintain the balance amount of ₹251 crore in the bank accounts, which was at the time of freezing the accounts, and this amount would not be used till further orders.
The court gave the ED a week’s time to file its reply on the petition and listed the matter for further hearing on July 28.
Apart from seeking cancellation of the freezing order, Vivo has sought permission to settle its frozen bank accounts for payment of certain liabilities.
On July 5, the investigating agency had conducted raids at various places across the country in a money laundering probe against Vivo and related firms.
Raids were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in several states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya and Maharashtra.
The High Court on July 8 directed the ED to take note of a representation made by Vivo to deal with its frozen bank accounts for payment of certain liabilities.
On Wednesday, the ED’s counsel informed the court that the representation was of general nature and after that, he asked the company to give some more documents, which were made available to the agency on Tuesday in a pen drive containing 5GB of data.
The agency’s counsel said in the representation that it was claimed that ₹2,826 crore was to be paid under various heads, but not a single document was kept in support.
He said the agency needs at least a week to go through the data in the pen drive and added that now the search has been completed and the relevant material has been sent to the adjudicating authority.
Vivo’s counsel argued that the ED can only seize what they have found in their search operation and not the company’s bank accounts which were already disclosed to all the authorities.
He said the freezing order negated the company’s financial autonomy.
Responding to the arguments, the ED’s counsel said, “To say that the company has disclosed all its bank accounts to the authorities, the forest for the trees is missing and the nature of proceeds of the offense was discovered only in searches.” Is”.
Vivo’s counsel had earlier said that freezing of bank accounts has stalled the functioning of the petitioner and that crores of rupees have to be paid as statutory dues apart from payment of salaries to its employees.
He had said that there was “no factual basis” behind the search operation and freezing of the bank account was a “civilian death” of the petitioner.
ED’s counsel had earlier informed the court that around 2014, a company – GPICPL – was set up on the basis of forged documents by “a person who is also a general ex-director of the petitioner”.
“An FIR was registered last year. There are 18 similar companies set up all over India by Bin Lu (General Former Director of the petitioner). A large quantity of objectionable material has been found and it is being analyzed. All Vivo orders were being placed through these 18 companies including GPICPL, which alone has handled ₹1200 crore,” he had said.
On 7 July, the probe agency said ₹62,476 crore was “illegally” transferred by Vivo to China to evade payment of taxes in India.
This money is almost half of Vivo’s Rs 1,25,185 crore business, it said without specifying the time period of the transaction.
Vivo in its petition has stated, “Due to non-availability of funds in the bank accounts with the petitioner, the petitioner would be unable to pay his statutory dues (such as customs duty, GST, TDS, etc.) to various authorities as well as others. Expenses (like salary, rent, etc.) due to which its business is now headed for a commercial and civil death.”
The ED has registered a money laundering case against the distributor of a Jammu and Kashmir-based agency after taking cognizance of a recent FIR by the Economic Offenses Wing of Delhi Police, where it was alleged that some Chinese shareholders of that company had tampered with their identities. The documents were forged.
The ED suspects that this alleged forgery was done by using shell or paper companies to launder illegally generated funds and divert some of these “proceeds of crime” to remain under the radar of Indian tax and enforcement agencies. it was done.