New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month issued a look out circular for Raveendran, founder and CEO of edtech firm Byju’s, mandating the Bureau of Immigration to inform the central probe agency if he tries to travel outside of India.
The LOC was issued after the ED’s Bengaluru zonal office wrote to the immigration body, a source in the agency told ThePrint.
The edtech firm is under ED scanner for alleged violation of The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, through remittance of Rs 9362.35 crore which the agency believes may have caused a loss to the exchequer.
The agency first raided three premises linked to Byju’s parent company Think & Learn Private Limited, including Raveendran’s home in April last year. The ED said Raveendran was “evasive” of the various summonses issued to him asking him to join the probe, which it said began based on complaints about alleged violations of FEMA norms.
The ED also said Byju’s did not prepare an audited financial statement for the financial year 2020-21 and that it received nearly Rs 28,000 crore as foreign direct investment (FDI) between 2011 and 2023, while also remitting approximately Rs 9,754 crore in the name of overseas direct investment.
The central agency further said Byju’s spent around Rs 944 crore in advertising and marketing expenses, some of which went to foreign countries.
In November last year, the ED had served a show-cause notice to Raveendran and his firm as it concluded they had violated FEMA norms because the company could not submit documents of imports against advance remittances made outside India along with the FDI received and had also failed to allot shares against fundings received as FDI.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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