The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday raided Chinese smartphone manufacturing company Vivo’s office in Assam’s Guwahati on Tuesday.

The search was conducted by the officials of the department from Guwahati and Kolkata at the office situated at Christian Basti area.

According to sources, the ED raided Rong Seng Mobile India Private Limited in connection with fake bills worth crores of rupees against the firm.

The ED conducted searches at 44 places across the country in a money laundering investigation against Vivo and related firms. The searches are being carried out under different sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at locations in several states including in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and others.

The ED suspects this alleged forgery was done to launder illegally generated funds using shell or paper companies and some of these "proceeds of crime" were diverted abroad or put in some other businesses by skirting Indian tax and enforcement agencies.