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Chinese man gets bail in ₹1k-cr hawala case
Charlie Peng, a 43-year-old man who birth name is allegedly Luo Sang, allegedly came to India in 2009 via Nepal and procured documents here fraudulently.
A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to a Chinese national, who was allegedly living in India under a pseudonym and arrested for suspected cross-border money laundering worth at least ₹1,000 crore, because the central agency couldn’t establish the source of his “proceeds of crime” after six months.
Charlie Peng, a 43-year-old man who birth name is allegedly Luo Sang, allegedly came to India in 2009 via Nepal and procured documents here fraudulently. In January, the ED arrested him along with his partner – Li Zhenghua alias Carter Lee -- under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Appearing for Peng, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa told additional sessions judge (ASJ) Dharmender Rana that the Chinese national was languishing in jail for about 175 days though the central agency failed to ascertain the source of his funds through shell companies.
“Peng has been running companies - OTA New Delhi Pvt Ltd (purchased in 2019) and Fin Black Rock (India) Pvt Ltd (purchased in 2018) and have been legally incorporated on the basis of genuine documents; these companies were doing legitimate business of custom clearance and consultancy business and are not indulged in any kind of illegal business,” said Pahwa.
Peng was earlier arrested by Delhi Police in 2018 for allegedly living in India under a false identity. He was given bail within a month.
Arguing that Peng was not a flight risk, Pahwa told the court that “he remained on bail for two years in the 2018 case and never misused the liberty granted to him”.
Opposing the bail, ED prosecutor Mohammad Faraz said that “Peng came illegally to India and started residing in Delhi from where he applied for a passport on the basis of forged and fabricated PAN card and Aadhar Card, but his application was rejected.”
Peng eventually got an Indian passport after he married a girl from Manipur.
Raising concerns that Peng may flee the country, Faraz said the ED was investigating the end use and last mile connectivity of the money trail as the probe is solely not based on documentary evidence. He added that the ED has identified at least 151 entities, so far, that have been used for money laundering.
The judge, however, rejected ED’s contention and allowed Peng to be released on bail on two sureties of ₹1 lakh each and asked him to surrender his passport before the court.
Rana agreed with Pahwa’s argument that the investigation conducted so far by the ED does not reveal the source of the “proceeds of crime”.
