Delhi High Court Allows Vivo To Operate Bank Accounts

Delhi High Court allows Vivo to operate bank accounts, and issues notice to ED: Vivo Money Laundering Case.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed Chinese mobile phone maker Vivo to operate frozen bank accounts in connection with a money laundering probe.

For this, the company will have to give a bank guarantee of Rs 950 crore. Justice Yashwant Verma.

While directing not to use the Rs 251 crore available in the bank account at the time of freezing, said that the company should also hand over the documents of the amount transferred to China.

The bench has asked the ED to file its reply regarding the freezing of the accounts.

The next hearing will be held on July 28.

Senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for Vivo, said that due to the freezing of bank accounts, the work of the petitioner has come to a standstill.

Crores of rupees are to be paid as statutory dues in addition to the salaries of the employees.

On July 5, the ED conducted searches at various places across the country in its money laundering probe against Vivo and related companies. Nine bank accounts were frozen.

The ED argues that Vivo had sent 50 percent of its total sales, or Rs 62,476 crore, to China.

Earned around Rs 1.20 lakh crore in the last two years, but sent almost half of it to China to avoid paying taxes. Indian companies have suffered huge losses due to this.

High Court said bank guarantee should be deposited within 7 days.

The bench also said that the bank guarantee should be submitted within 7 working days. Meanwhile, the ED will file its reply.

Advocate Zohaib Hussain submitted that the petitioner supplied the necessary documents of 5GB contained in a pen drive along with the letter sent to him.

Seven days time is required to analyze these documents. Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal submitted that the bank accounts of the company have been frozen with an amount of Rs 251 crore.

All transactions and flow of funds have been stopped and the petitioner is not able to conduct business and no company can operate without a bank account.

Senior advocate Agrawal submitted that 9 bank accounts have been frozen and dues and customs duty are paid from these accounts.

He further said that these accounts have to be activated to run the business.

Vivo’s lawyer Siddharth Aggarwal said.

Siddharth Agarwal said, “I will not touch 251 crores, let me operate it. We will maintain the balance. I have to pay the suppliers and there are other expenses also.”

“How much money is lying in the account?” The bench asked. “Rs 251 crore”, replied Agarwal. He said that debits to these accounts have been frozen.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing through VC, argued that the ED has frozen Rs 251 crore.

ED’s counsel Zohaib Hussain argued that the suspicious amount was Rs. 1200 crores and only 251 crores have been debited. “He is our distributor in Himachal Pradesh.

We have 18 distributors in the country,” Agarwal said. The mobile company has offered to give weekly or daily details of transactions.

“We may consider allowing you statutory dues and salary but no foreign remittances,” the court said.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra submitted that the components of the mobile are imported and payment has to be made for them.

Siddharth Agarwal said, “We will give a bank guarantee of 950 crores, please allow”.

The court said, “Okay, give the bank guarantee.” Zohaib Hussain opposed the contention saying that Rs. 60000 has already gone to China, don’t let it be repatriated abroad and to China.

ED had seized crores of rupees deposited in Vivo’s bank accounts.

The senior official said that it is difficult to estimate the total amount of money laundering committed by Vivo.

Let us tell you that the ED has attached Rs 465 crore deposited in 119 bank accounts, including fixed deposits of Rs 66 crore of Vivo.

Along with this, the ED has also recovered two gold bricks of one kg each and cash of Rs 73 lakh.

The senior ED official said that during the raid, the Vivo official tried his best to conceal and destroy the evidence.

Many officers were caught deleting data from computers, while some were caught running away with hard disks. Some officers were trying to hide the laptop.

But ED has taken possession of all these devices and now they are being sent for forensic examination.

According to a senior ED official, preparations for money laundering were made with the registration of Vivo in India in 2014.