- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) economic intelligence agency on Saturday (29) carried out searches at the premises of Byju Raveendran, chief executive officer of ed-tech firm BYJU’S which is based in Bengaluru in the southern state of Karnataka for allegedly violating foreign funding norms.
The agency officials searched two business and one residential premises in the city in connection with a case against Raveendran and his company ‘Think & Learn Private Limited’ under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), NDTV reported.
According to ED, several incriminating documents and data were seized by the officials.
BYJU’S claimed the searches were related to a “routine inquiry” under FEMA.
“We have been completely transparent with the authorities and have provided them with all the information they have requested. We have nothing but the utmost confidence in the integrity of our operations, and we are committed to upholding the highest standards of compliance and ethics,” the company was quoted as saying by NDTV, adding that “it is business as usual at BYJU’S”.
“FEMA searches also revealed that the company has received foreign direct investment to the tune of ₹ 28,000 crore (approx) (£2.7 million) during the period from 2011 to 2023,” a media release from ED said.
It added that the company has also sent around Rs 9,754 crore (£948.9 million) to various foreign entities in the name of overseas direct investment in the same period.
It was said that the action was initiated on the basis of “various complaints” received by private people. It was also alleged that Byju was issued “several” summons but he remained “evasive and never appeared” before the ED.
“The company has not prepared its financial statements since the financial year 2020-21 and has not got the accounts audited, which is mandatory,” the probe agency said, adding the company booked around Rs 944 crore (£91.8 million) in the name of “Advertisement and Marketing expenses”, including the amount remitted to foreign jurisdictions, the NDTV report added.
