The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed an appeal on Tuesday against an order by the Delhi High Court which asked for the release of three Vivo India executives who were taken into custody by the ED earlier this month in a money laundering case.
Relief was granted to the Vivo India execs on December 30 since the accused were not presented before court within 24 hours of their arrest. Hence, deeming the custody illegal. The three execs claimed that they were arrested on December 21 and not December 22 as recorded by the ED.
The company, in a statement, said it was “deeply alarmed by the current action of the authorities.”
The ED arrested four individuals including Hari Om Rai, MD of Lava International, Chinese national Andrew Kuang and CAs Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik. They are currently bin judicial custody.
The ED had claimed that the illicit activities of the four arrested individuals led Vivo India to make illegal gains that were harmful to India’s economic sovereignty.
A sum of Rs. 62476 crore was accused by the ED of being illegally funnelled to China by Vivo India in a bid to avoid paying taxes. However, the company denied the allegations claiming that they comply with al ethical and legal principles.