Court orders release of 3 senior vivo-India officials

New Delhi, December 30

A Delhi court on Saturday ordered the release of three senior employees working for Chinese smartphone maker vivo’s India unit, after declaring their arrest as illegal.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier arrested three executives of the mobile phone company namely — interim CEO of vivo-India Hong Xuquan, alias Terry, chief financial officer Harinder Dahiya and consultant Hemant Munjal, in a case of alleged money laundering.

The three had challenged their arrest and were released by Patiala House court on personal bonds of Rs 2 lakh each on Saturday.

On December 29, the court had extended by one day the ED custody of the three accused and others.

The three persons were presented in the court on Saturday after the expiry of their ED custody. On Friday, they were produced before the court after the expiry of their five-day ED custody granted earlier.

They were taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had also arrested four persons — Lava International’s MD Hari Om Rai, Chinese national Guangwen, alias Andrew Kuang, and chartered accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik — in the case.

The agency had filed a chargesheet against these four in a special PMLA court in Delhi. The court recently took cognisance of the charges.