Vivo PMLA case: Delhi Court sends Chinese national, others to judicial custody

The fourth accused in the matter Rajan Malik was already sent to judicial custody by the court on the last date of the hearing.

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

On Wednesday, Guangwen Kuang alias Andrew, Hari Om Rai and Nitin Garg were produced by ED after the end of their remand period.

The Central agency through an application sought court direction to send Guangwen Kuang alias Andrew and Hari Om Rai to judicial custody. After noting the submissions, the Court agreed to send them into Judicial custody till October 30.

However, ED through Special Public Prosecutor Manish Jain sought further remand of accused Nitin Garg stating that the accused is to be confronted with financial statements of 13 companies out of 20 companies along with the relevant financial notes since incorporation to financial year 2021-22.

It is submitted that during the period of remand granted on October 16, 2023, 50 pages of statements of the accused have been recorded and more than 1000 pages of financial statements have been confronted with the accused.

On this, the Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala said, I am not inclined to grant further custody remand of the accused Nitin Garg. Accordingly, the application in this regard moved by the Enforcement Directorate is rejected.

It is clear that a sufficient period of custody remand has already been granted to the Enforcement Directorate, the court said.

"There is no nexus between the allegations levelled against the applicant/accused or the role assigned and the documents to be confronted with the accused. I have also perused the statement of the accused Nitin Garg recorded during his custody remand, in which the accused has specifically explained that his role was limited to the incorporation of companies in the year 2014 and thereafter he had no connection or contact with the above said companies," it noted further.

The Enforcement Directorate has not placed on record any material which suggests that the accused was connected with or assigned with any role after incorporation regarding audit/financial transactions of the companies, said the court.

According to the ED, certain Chinese Shareholders of Grand Porspect 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 a subsidiary of Vivo in the official records whereas the said company publicly projects itself to be a subsidiary of Vivo.

ED further alleged that Director and Share Holder Zhang Jie used a false driving licence for 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 Polive 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.

ED further alleged that soon after incorporation of M/s Vivo, India, 19 more companies including M/s GPICPL were incorporated across India, completely controlled by Chinese Nationals. The accused Bin Luo was the founding/first Director in 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. (ANI)