ED Alleges iPhones Sold on Amazon Were Shown as 'Exported' to Dubai: ED Case Against Ex-Minister Sanjeev Arora

Sanjeev Arora money laundering case: ED alleges iPhones sold in India were shown as exported to Dubai. Allegations, defence and what the High Court said.

North Desk Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, October 16

Sanjeev Arora Money Laundering Case:The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleges that mobile phones worth about Rs 102.50 crore, shown as exported to Dubai by former Punjab cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora’s company, never really left India. Some of those very iPhones, ED says, had already been sold to ordinary buyers here.

Justice Kuldeep Tiwari of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday rejected Arora’s bail. Arora, former Chairman and Managing Director of Hampton Sky Realty Limited, a Ludhiana-based real estate company, has been in judicial custody since May 9. He denies the allegations. The court said its observations are prima facie, meant only for deciding bail, and have no bearing on the trial.

Sanjeev Arora Money Laundering Case

THE ALLEGED SCHEME, STEP BY STEP (ED’s case)

1. A property company suddenly sells phones. ED says the company, with no experience in the mobile business, started trading phones in 2023, mostly iPhones, and stopped in 2024. It ran the business from rented premises in Ghitorni, Delhi.
2. Big exports to just two buyers. The company showed Rs 157 crore in phone sales in 2023-24. Of this, Rs 102.50 crore was exports, on 43 shipping bills, to only two firms in the UAE. ED says these buyers were closely connected to people holding shares in the company, not independent third parties.
3. A supply trail on paper. To show where the phones came from, the company produced purchase invoices from local suppliers. ED says these were shell or accommodation-entry firms with no real phones to supply.
4. One phone number behind seven firms. ED says seven firms in the chain were linked to a single mobile number. Its registered owner, Kartik Verma, told police it had been misused to register fake GST firms. The GST Department confirmed none of the seven had any inward supply of phones, and their registrations were later suspended or cancelled.
5. Money allegedly going in a circle. Rs 27.73 crore was paid to one supplier. ED says almost all of that money came back from the company’s own customers and partners, meaning its own money was circulating back to itself.
6. Government refunds. On the basis of these exports, ED says the company got Rs 15.63 crore in IGST refunds and Rs 48.53 lakh in duty drawback from the government. Rs 86.87 crore also came in as foreign remittances.

THE IPHONE CHECK: THE MOST STRIKING ALLEGATION

Sanjeev Arora Money Laundering Case: ED checked the exported phones’ IMEI numbers (each phone’s unique ID) against Apple India’s records. It alleges:

• 123 identical IMEIs were declared as exported twice, in two shipping bills, with no record of coming back
• 58 phones had already been sold to Indian distributors and activated on Indian networks before their so-called export
• 97 phones declared as exported were activated and used in India after the declared export dates
• 1,249 of the phones were traced to Amazon sales to 862 individual buyers across 11 states, who ED says have no link to the company or its suppliers

ED’s reading: the company used IMEI details of phones sold in India to falsely show them as exports.

TWO MORE ALLEGED RED FLAGS

• Timing: trading in phones began on April 19, 2023, but the company’s formal permission to change its business objects came only on August 4, 2023, 107 days later. ED says Rs 42.51 crore of purchases and Rs 18.06 crore of exports happened before that.
• Staff statements: ED says the company’s operations manager and accountant told it that no phones were ever received, stored or inspected at the Ghitorni office, no purchase orders were issued to suppliers, and communication was mostly on WhatsApp.

ARORA’S ROLE, ACCORDING TO ED

• He was Chairman and Managing Director until August 2025, with a family stake of 37.5% to 38%, and the sole authorised signatory of the company’s bank account.
• ED says his son Kavya Arora, the company’s Managing Director, and other staff told it that Arora alone ran and controlled the phone business and gave the instructions.
• ED says he benefited as the company’s net worth and borrowing capacity rose, and that funds went into family-held entities and real estate. Properties worth Rs 55.57 crore were provisionally attached.
• ED says two men linked to the business, Rahul Agrawal and Sanjeev Walia, could not be questioned because they reportedly fled to Dubai.

ARORA’S VERSION

• The exports were real. Arora’s claim is that every shipment was checked and cleared by Indian Customs and then by UAE customs. A customs order of December 2023 found only 62 of 13,930 exported phones had been pre-activated, and approved drawback of about Rs 48.53 lakh.
• The phones were real. He says most IMEIs from the suppliers named by ED appear in Apple’s records, which it says shows the goods existed. It also says no customs officer has been joined in ED’s probe.
• Tax authorities. A Delhi GST appellate order of September 24, 2026 found the company’s input tax credit in order, except for two suppliers. The company itself filed an FIR against those two in May 2025.
• The FIR was a set-up. The defence says the Gurugram FIR was registered 82 minutes after a diary entry, on ED’s own complaint, only to give ED jurisdiction under the money laundering law.
• The arrest. The defence says Arora was never summoned, only two statements, neither naming him, existed before his arrest, and it was predetermined and politically motivated.
• Health. He has a serious heart and lung condition, including a pulmonary embolism, diabetes and hypertension.

READ ALSO: Fresh ED Raids In Sanjeev Arora Money Laundering Case; Hindu Traders Targeted, Says AAP

HOW WE GOT HERE

• April 17, 2026: ED searches the company’s premises under foreign exchange law
• April 18: Gurugram Police registers an FIR on ED’s complaint
• May 5: ED registers its money laundering case. May 9: Arora arrested
• June 15: Special Court in Gurugram rejects bail
• July 6: ED files its prosecution complaint. September 18: court takes cognizance
• October 16: High Court rejects bail
• The trial has 145 witnesses. None has been examined yet.

ALSO: Is Sanjeev Arora Sick Enough to Get Bail? Supreme Court Says No — For Now

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