The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized ₹3.94 crore in the case related to Pigeon Education Technology India Private Limited under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The agency had earlier seized ₹8.31 crore in the same case taking the total amount seized to ₹12.25 crore.
The company, which provides online education under the name ‘Oda Class’, is allegedly 100% owned by Chinese nationals and all its affairs, including financial decisions, are being taken by persons operating from China, said the agency.
According to the ED, its investigation revealed that the company siphoned off ₹82.72 crore to China and Hong Kong on the pretext of advertising and marketing expenses, on the instructions of its Chinese director Liu Kan. However, when the agency sought details, the company could not produce “any proof of receipt of service on its part and evidence of any advertisement published against the said expenses”.
“Further, the director and the accounts manager of the company have also admitted during investigation that the payments were made only on the instructions of Chinese director Liu Kan,” the ED said.
The Indian director of the company purportedly told the ED that the Chinese director told employees that the advertisements were published through Google and Facebook. But there was no confirmation about it and also, no invoice raised by these platforms was submitted for corroboration.
In April, the ED had conducted searches on two premises linked to Pigeon Education Technology India Private Limited. It had then alleged that the company was part of a “complex web of entities having an ultimate controlling company in Cayman Islands”.
As it turned out, the Chinese director was allegedly the authorised signatory for all the bank accounts maintained by the company in India and the same were being operated online from China.
“Role of the earlier directors of the company, Sushant Srivastava, Priyanka Khandelawal and Himanshu Garg, who resigned last year, is also under investigation,” the agency had said.
