India’s monetary crimes company has arrested a Chinese worker of smartphone maker Vivo, the agency stated.

Indian officers haven’t commented but however Vivo stated it “will exercise all available legal options” on behalf of its worker, Andrew Kuang.

Authorities raided Vivo’s workplace final 12 months, accusing it of unlawful remittances from India to China.

It is the second-biggest smartphone model in India, after Samsung, in accordance with business information.

Vivo has denied any wrongdoing and stated it complies with Indian regulation.

Tuesday’s arrest occurred beneath the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It is “a very stringent law and allows for criminal cases to be filed, unlike regular foreign exchange violations which are majorly considered civil offenses,” in accordance with Atul Pandey, Senior Partner at authorized agency Khaitan.

Vivo has additionally been accused of customs evasion by the tax enforcement company. The agency is owned by China’s BBK Electronics, which additionally operates manufacturers reminiscent of Oppo and Realme in India.

In the previous 18 months, Indian authorities have additionally focused different Chinese cell phone corporations reminiscent of Xiaomi by freezing $670m of property.

Earlier this 12 months, India’s minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar advised parliament that Chinese corporations had evaded taxes to the tune of $1.1bn. He stated the federal government had managed to get better solely about 18% of this quantity.

Speaking to the BBC on the situation of anonymity, a senior authorized counsel who represents a number of Chinese corporations in India stated that the crackdown was initially meant to place strain on the Chinese authorities within the aftermath of a deadly border clash in 2020 that killed 24 troopers. India had responded then by banning lots of of Chinese apps, together with TikTok.

Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated since, with India most lately registering “strong protest” over a brand new Chinese map that it stated laid declare to its territory.