Delhi’s Patiala House Court on Saturday released three Vivo-India executives including a Chinese national, who are accused in the Vivo-India money laundering case. All the three were released by the court after the one day extended custody to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) ended.

The three executives of the company included Interim CEO of Vivo-India Hong Xuquan alias Terry, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Harinder Dahiya and consultant Hemant Munjal, who were arrested by the probe agency under anti-money laundering law.

Earlier, they were produced before the court on Thursday, during which the court had extended the custody of all the accused to ED by one-day. It is being said that the probe agency claimed before the court that they were required to confront the accused to ascertain more facts.

ED is probing money-laundering case against Chinese mobile maker company and several others

The ED has been investigating the money laundering case against the Chinese smartphone maker and others and claimed that during the investigation, it detected a huge tax evasion.

Before the three accused, the federal agency had arrested four people in the case including mobile company Lava International's MD Hari Om Rai, Chinese national Guangwen alias Andrew Kuang, and chartered accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik.

A charge sheet was filed by the ED against the four in a special PMLA (Preventions of Money Laundering Act) court in Delhi. The ED had alleged that the activities of the four arrestees enabled Vivo-India to make wrongful gains that were detrimental to the economic sovereignty of India.

The enforcement agency had raided Vivo-India and people linked to it in July last year, following which, the agency claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies.

As per ED’s allegations, around Rs 62,476 crore was illegally transferred by Vivo-India to China to avoid payment of taxes in India, reports news agency PTI. An investigation was initiated in the case by the probe agency on February 3, after studying a December 2022, Delhi Police FIR against an associated company of Vivo-India, its directors, shareholders and some other professionals.

It is being alleged that the three Chinese nationals associated with the Chinese mobile maker company along with an Indian national incorporated 23 companies in India with the alleged assistance of a chartered accountant. All the Chinese nationals, allegedly found involved in the money laundering case, have left India between 2018 and 2021.