In Short:
Delhi court granted bail to three accused in a money laundering case against vivo smartphone. The accused were not arrested during the investigation and cooperated with authorities. The Enforcement Directorate had alleged a money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and Indian companies, claiming vivo transferred Rs 62,476 crore illegally to China to avoid taxes. The court accepted the arguments and granted bail considering the facts of the case.
Delhi Court Grants Bail to Three Accused in Money Laundering Case Against vivo
A court in Delhi has granted bail to three people accused in a money laundering case against Chinese smartphone-maker vivo. Additional Sessions Judge Kiran Gupta granted the relief to Bhupinder Kaur, Gagandeep Singh and Weigang Wang in an order passed on May 1.
Arguments and Decision
The judge accepted the arguments made by senior advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Wang, who lives in Andhra Pradesh, that the accused persons were not arrested during the investigation. The accused persons had appeared before the court in pursuance to the summons issued by the judge while taking cognisance of a charge sheet by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the case.
Dubey told the court that the investigation was already complete and no purpose will be served by sending the accused to judicial custody. The judge further noted that there was no allegations that the accused did not join or cooperate during the investigation.
“Keeping in view the overall facts and circumstances of the case coupled with the submissions made and the fact that the accused persons were not arrested during the course of investigation and there are no allegations that they did not cooperate during investigation, all the three bail applications are allowed,” the judge said.
Opposition from ED
The ED had opposed the bail applications, claiming that the accused were flight risk and the allegations against them were serious in nature. It had also claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies.
The ED had alleged that a whopping Rs 62,476 crore was “illegally” transferred by vivo to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India.
