China To Provide Consular Assistance To Vivo Employees Arrested By ED In Money Laundering Case

China will extend consular protection and assistance to two of its citizens, working for smartphone manufacturer Vivo, who were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with its probe into a money laundering case.

Further, China has also urged India not to discriminate against Chinese companies

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated in a routine press briefing that the Chinese government is actively monitoring the situation.

"We are closely following what you mentioned. The Chinese government firmly supports Chinese companies to safeguard their lawful rights and interests," Mao Ning said in a press briefing.

Last week, two senior officials of Vivo's India unit were arrested by the country's financial crime enforcement agency.

The company has pledged to contest their arrests in court.

The three accused were produced before a Delhi court on Sunday and were remanded in ED custody for three days, news agency PTI reported citing sources.

The arrest comes two months after the ED arrested four industry executives, including a Chinese national (Kyang alias Andrew Kuang) working for Vivo's Indian arm, Lava International MD Hari Om Rai and chartered accountants Nitin Garg and Rajan Malik in a money laundering case.

ED had filed a charge sheet against the four accused and Vivo India against a special PMLA court in Delhi and the court has recently took cognizance of the matter.

In the chargesheet, ED claimed that the four accused had conducted illegal activities that enabled Vivo India to make wrongful gains and were detrimental to the economic sovereignty of India.