Delhi High Court asks ED to decide on Vivo's request to operate its bank accounts

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take a decision on Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo's representation seeking permission to operate its frozen bank accounts.

A bench of Justice Yashwant Varma also asked ED's counsel to take instructions on Vivo's plea challenging the freezing of its bank accounts.

During the course of the hearing, Vivo's counsels -- Siddharth Luthra and Siddharth Aggarwal -- submitted that nine bank accounts have been frozen which hold nearly Rs 250 crore.

"Today, without any concern about the business model, source, where the money has come from, where it is going, a carte blanche order is placed which will be my sudden death," the petitioners said.

On the other hand, the probe agency argued that Vivo remitted 50 per cent of its total sales, i.e., Rs 62,476 crore, to China.

It earned nearly Rs 1.20 lakh crore in the last two years but remitted nearly half of it to avoid paying taxes, the ED alleged. This caused huge losses to the Indian incorporated companies, the ED said.

ED's counsel Zoheb Hossain further said that the probe agency was involved in a country-wide search.

"We went to 48 locations related to them (Vivo). Searches at all but one location is complete... They are not even cooperating," the ED submitted.

In its plea, Vivo said the orders against it are in stark contravention to the mandate of Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), as the same do not entail any reasons for freezing, let alone cogent "reasons to believe" as to why the bank account should be frozen. It is a generic order passed mechanically without any application of mind, the plea said.

It said the total non-application of mind and arbitrariness is manifest from the fact that even the amount in question has not been quantified by the respondent and blanket orders for freezing all the bank accounts have been passed, causing substantial and irreparable hardship to the petitioner and gravely impacting its business and reputation.

It further said the frozen accounts are used for the payment of salaries and statutory dues, opening of letter of credits for the petitioner's operations, and for all kinds of expenses necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the petitioner.

"Monthly payments of around Rs 2,826 crore have to be made towards statutory dues, salaries, rent, monies for daily business operations etc. Due to the freezing of the bank accounts, the petitioner will be unable to honour its aforesaid obligations, not only towards various statutory authorities, but also towards its employees and customers," it stated.

Vivo has told the court that the circulation of the news about the ED searches has maligned its image among its suppliers and customers, "leading to reputational and financial loss, and irreparable damage to the years of goodwill developed" by it.

"The freezing of the bank accounts will not only impede the existing/prospective business operations of the petitioner conducted through the bank accounts, but will bear an adverse effect on the petitioner's operations across the globe," it added.