The Enforcement Directorate has made three fresh arrests in connection with its money laundering probe against Chinese smartphone maker Vivo and some others, official sources said on Saturday.
The three have been taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said. The identity of the three people was not known immediately.
The federal agency had earlier made four arrests in the case which included mobile company Lava International's MD Hari Om Rai, Chinese national Guangwen alias Andrew Kuang and chartered accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik. They are in judicial custody at present.
A charge-sheet was also filed by the Enforcement Directorate against these people recently before a special PMLA court in Delhi and the court took its cognisance recently.
The anti-money laundering agency had raided Vivo-India and persons linked to it in July last year and claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies.
The ED had then alleged that a whopping Rs 62,476 crore was "illegally" transferred by Vivo-India to China to avoid payment of taxes in India. The company had rejected the allegations, saying it "firmly adheres to its ethical principles and remains dedicated to legal compliance."
