ED upgrades Look out Circular against Byju Raveendran
The earlier such alert meant that immigration authorities had to just intimate the agency about his movements through various ports
PTI
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BJYU's founder and CEO Byju Raveendran
New Delhi, 22 Feb
Enforcement Directorate has
upgraded its Look out Circular (LC) issued against BJYU's founder and CEO Byju
Raveendran in connection with a FEMA probe, seeking to stop him from going
abroad.
The earlier such alert meant that
immigration authorities had to just intimate the agency about his movements
through various ports. Official sources said that the over an year old LC was
revised sometime back in light of investors' concerns and ongoing adjudication
of a FEMA contravention case against Raveendran and some others.
BYJU's did not comment on the
development. Raveendran is currently stated to be in Dubai.
The ED has asked the Bureau of
Immigration to upgrade the LC against Raveendran so that he is not allowed to
go abroad from any Indian land, air or land port before the investigating
officer (IO) of the case is informed.
Under the new LC, it will be the
decision of the IO to either totally stop his foreign travel or allow him to do
so after asking some questions and getting assurances, the sources said.
The LC in operation till now
against Raveendran only stipulated the immigration authorities to inform the ED
about his entry and exit from the country. The agency, in November last year,
had slapped a foreign exchange violation show cause notice of more than Rs
9,300 crore against BYJU's and Raveendran.
The federal probe agency spelled
out multiple grounds for charging the ed-tech company and its chief promoter
that included charges of "failing" to submit documents of imports
against advance remittances made outside India; failing to realise proceeds of
exports made outside India by delayed filing of documents against the Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) received into the company, among others.
The Karnataka High Court on
Wednesday had refused to stay an emergency shareholder meeting called by select
investors of Think and Learn Pvt Ltd -- the owner of BYJU'S -- to oust
Raveendran and his family from the leadership in the edtech firm.
The court gave an interim relief
that any resolution passed at the EGM scheduled on Friday cannot be implemented
before the next court hearing. Select shareholders of BYJU'S have issued an EGM
notice to be held on 23 February, demanding a change in leadership of the
edtech firm while alleging several anomalies in their functioning.
Meanwhile, Raveendran issued a
letter to shareholders on Wednesday appealing all investors to participate in
the USD 200 million rights issue floated by the company. He later shared that
the rights issue has been fully subscribed.
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