New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate today raided Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Vivo and other firms related to it, with searches at 44 locations across India, over allegations of money laundering.
No response was immediately available from the company.
Last December, the Income Tax Department, too, had searched premises of Vivo and other such Chinese firms, including Oppo, Xiaomi and OnePlus, at over 20 places.
That search was conducted based on intelligence inputs of tax evasion in hundreds of crores by showing losses or lower revenue than actually generated, sources had said.
Xiaomi’s India head Manu Jain was questioned by the central agency over alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act or FEMA. The ED even attached Xiaomi’s bank accounts with Rs 5,000 crore with the case, but that was halted by the Karnataka High Court. Xiaomi alleged that the ED pressured its officers — allegations that the agency denied.
Last August, too, Chinese government-controlled telecom vendor ZTE was raided with searches at five premises, including its corporate office.
