ED summons Vodafone Essar chief on April 17

The enforcement directorate (ED) under the department of revenue has asked the managing director of Vodafone Essar to appear before it on Tuesday, in connection with a money laundering probe. The notice was sent last month. The company is now known as Vodafone India and Marten Pieters is the managing director and CEO. The letter does not take any name. Click here for Cloud Computing Also Read Related Stories News Now - 2G scam: ED summons Airtel, Vodafone top brass - DB Realty moves HC for vacation of attachment - Essar Capital to buy shares in India Securities - Essar Capital to buy India Securities shares - 2G scam: ED to send fresh LRs to British Virgin Islands - ED summons Maran brothers The notice asks the MD to appear before the ED in New Delhi through authorised representatives with the documents for details of spectrum allotted to the company by the department of telecommunications (DoT) and bank accounts during January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2002, details of foreign direct investment (FDI) received by the company and copies of correspondence with the Reserve Bank of India in this regard. Besides, the documents of all the details of the company directors and persons/legal entities holding more than one per cent equity of the company till date, copies of annual reports for 2000-2001, 2002-03 and 2010-11, the names and addresses of associate companies/joint ventures in and outside India since incorporation till date and details of inter-corporate deposits given/taken by the company since incorporation. Vodafone India declined to comment on the issue. In the notice, the ED also said if the company failed to give evidence as mentioned, it would be liable for penal proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. In January this year, Vodafone had won a five-year legal battle against the Indian tax authorities, with the Supreme Court dismissing a $2.2-billion tax demand over its acquisition of Indian mobile telecom assets in 2007. The income tax office filed a petition seeking a review but it was also dismissed. The tax demand was over Vodafone's $11-billion deal to buy Hutchison Whampoa’s mobile telephone business here in 2007. With the retrospective tax amendments in the Union budget, the issue has been reopened. Vodafone had also come under Central Bureau of Investigation scrutiny last year. In November, CBI had raided the offices of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone regarding alleged irregularities and losses in the allocation of spectrum when during the tenure of the earlier BJP-led NDA government. CBI had searched Vodafone’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai and the Bharti Airtel headquarters in Gurgaon after it filed a case in this regard. The CBI alleged the exchequer suffered a loss of Rs 508 crore after the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s awarded additional airwaves to these companies in 2002.