Vivo Money Laundering Case: Judicial Custody Of Chinese Man Extended Till Dec 7

A Patiala House Court of Delhi on Thursday extended the judicial custody of accused individuals, including the Managing Director of Lava International mobile company by 14 days, in connection with a money laundering case related to Chinese smartphone-maker Vivo.

The four accused are -- Lava International MD Hari Om Rai, Chinese national Guangwen alias Andrew Kuang, Chartered Accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik.

In the matter, Vivo has consistently denied the allegations and its spokesperson said, "We will pursue necessary and appropriate legal recourse."

On Thursday, Guangwen Kuang alias Andrew, Hari Om Rai, Rajan Malik and Nitin Garg were produced before the court after the end of their judicial remand granted earlier by Special Judge Devender Jangala.

Advocate Nitesh Rana appeared for Hari Om Rai and argued that no fresh material to extend judicial custody, the application seeking custody is mechanical and there is no allegation of non-cooperation against Hari Om Rai.

According to the ED, certain Chinese shareholders of Grand Prospect Internation Communication Private Ltd. incorporated the company on the basis of forged identification documents and falsified addresses.

During the course of enquiry, certain fraudulent activities were found by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

"The said company was not reported to the subsidiary of Vivo in the official records whereas the said company publicly projects itself to be a subsidiary of Vivo," said ED.

ED further alleged that director and shareholder, Zhang Jie used a false driving licence for applying Director Identification Number(DIN) to give his Shillong address and also used his fake driving licence in opening the bank account.

"With the allegations of cheating an FIR in Police station Kalkaji, South East Delhi registered under Section 417/120B/420 IPC and another FIR also registered under Section 417/420/468/471/120B IPC by the Economic Offence Wing, Delhi Police on the basis of a complaint filed by Manjit Singh, the then Deputy Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, NCT of Delhi," the ED said.

ED further alleged that soon after the incorporation of Vivo, India, 19 more companies including GPICPL were incorporated across India, completely controlled by Chinese Nationals.

The accused Bin Luo was the founding and the first Director of Vivo India, GPICPL and all other 18 entities at the time of their incorporation and the accused Nitin Garg, had assisted in the incorporation of most of the companies of Vivo Group.

According to the Enforcement Directorate, raids were on the premises of the accused on October 9 and seized cash amounting to more than Rs 10 lakhs and arrested four accused who have been identified as Guangwen Kyang aka Andrew Kuang, the Chinese National, Hari Om Rai, the MD of Lava International, Rajan Malik, and Nitin Garg, a Chartered Accountant.

The probe revealed that the PMLA investigation by ED was initiated by registering a money laundering case on February 3, 2022.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)