Vuenow Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India and Another (Punjab and Haryana High Court)
Punjab and Haryana High Court refused to de-freeze bank account of company alleged to have dishonestly induced individuals/ investors to invest in cloud particles thus involved in scheduled offences under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Facts- The ED initiated inquiries/investigation under the 1999 Act in respect of the group companies, namely Ms/ Vuenow Infotech Pvt. Ltd. (M/s VIPL), M/s Vuenow Marketing Services Ltd. (M/s VMSL), M/s Zebyte Infotech Pvt. Ltd. (M/s ZIPL) and M/s Zebyte Rental Planet Pvt. Ltd. (M/s ZRPPL).
Initial inquiries/investigations reveal that the above mentioned entities received foreign inward remittance. It was found from the financial statements that the aforesaid foreign inward remittances have not been declared by VIPL and VMSL in the financial year 2021-22 and 2022-23. Similarly, the GSTR-I return of M/s ZRPPL was analyzed for the relevant period i.e. from February 2023 to July 2023 and it was found that M/s ZRPPL has not mentioned any export of service in their statutory GSTR-I return. Through discreet inquiry, it was found that M/s ZRPPL has shown nine export invoices valuing ₹8,75,97,027.80 during the month of August 2024.
Thereafter, the ED conducted searches u/s. 37 of the 1999 Act r.w.s. 32 of the 1961 Act. The amount lying in certain bank accounts was also freezed as the 1999 Act violations were suspected. There was a direction to debit freeze for a temporary period of 15 days with respect to certain accounts held by the petitioner company and others in order to protect the Indian Economy from a serious harm.
