The Delhi High Court on Wednesday provided some relief to Chinese handset maker Vivo by allowing it to operate 10 bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering probe. However, this is subject to the company providing a bank guarantee of Rs 950 crore to the agency within a week.
Further, the court also directed Vivo to maintain a balance of Rs 251 crore, the amount which was in the bank at the time of the freezing of the accounts.
Justice Yashwant Varma while seeking a response from the ED, on the company’s plea for quashing the freezing order, also directed Vivo to submit details about its bank activities and other remittances to the probe agency within a week.
The matter has been posted for further hearing on July 28.
The HC passed the order after counsel Zoheb Hossain, appearing for the ED, alleged that so far, the proceeds of crime in the money laundering case against Vivo are near 1,200 crore and it could only freeze 251 crore lying in Vivo’s bank accounts.
He said that the ED would need at least seven days to analyse the huge material given by the company that runs into more than 5 gigabytes (GB) of data.
While seeking permission to deal with its frozen bank accounts, counsel Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for Vivo, argued that by freezing its accounts, the agency had not only stopped it from using its own money but also stalled the inflow and outflow of fresh cash, thus causing hardships in daily operations as it needs around `2,826 crore towards its monthly payments.
As reported earlier, the HC had last week asked the ED to consider allowing the company to operate its bank accounts.
Vivo had moved HC after the ED conducted a nationwide raid on its premises in connection with a money laundering probe and froze its bank accounts.
The ED had said the Indian arm of Vivo “remitted” almost 50% of its turnover, which is Rs 62,476 crore, mainly to China to avoid paying taxes in India. It had also seized 73 lakh cash and 2 kg gold bars.