Delhi High Court Grants Time To Vivo Employees To Respond To ED's Plea Against Their Release In Money Laundering Case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted one weeks' time to three vivo-India executives, including a Chinese national, to file their response on a plea moved by Enforcement Directorate (ED) against a trial court order directing their release in a money laundering case.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma listed the matter for further hearing on January 11 and said that she will direct the accused persons to appear before the ED on Fridays and Mondays, details of which will be reflected in the written order.

ASG SV Raju appearing for ED submitted that the impugned order passed by the trial court is totally perverse in nature and that one of the accused persons, who is a Chinese national, is a flight risk.

As the counsel appearing for the accused sought time to file response, the court granted the same and deferred the hearing.

The plea was listed on December 02 before a vacation bench which issued notice to the three accused persons namely Hong Xuquan, Harender Dahiya and Hemant Kumar Munjal, keeping in view the gravity of the case put across by the ED.

ED has challenged an order passed by a vacation judge of Patiala House Courts on December 30 which held the arrest of the three accused persons as illegal, non-est and void. The court had also released them on bail.

However, keeping in view the apprehension expressed by ED, an additional condition was imposed upon the accused persons that they shall report in the agency's office everyday at 10 a.m. till January 03.

This was after the three individuals moved applications before the trial court challenging their arrest and custody by ED. It was their case that they were arrested on December 21 and not on December 22, as claimed by the probe agency.

While granting them relief, the trial court had observed that they were not produced before within 24 hours of their arrest and hence their custody was illegal.

As per ED, raids were conducted on Vivo India and other individuals linked to it in 2022. It was alleged that a major money laundering racket was busted involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies.

It was also alleged that Rs 62,476 crore was "illegally" transferred by Vivo India to China to avoid payment of taxes in India.

Title: DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT v. HONG XUQUAN @ TERRY AND ORS.