Alleging Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations amounting to Rs 9,000 crore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued a show cause notice to edtech start-up Byju's, according to some news reports on Tuesday. However, the company has denied saying it has not received any notice from the ED.
“Byju’s unequivocally denies media reports that insinuate it has received a notice from the Enforcement Department. The company has not received any such communication from the Enforcement Department,” a Byju’s spokesperson said.
According to a report by CNBC-TV18, the notice was sent to Byju’s parent firm Think and Learn Pvt Ltd (TLPL) and the founder Byju Raveendran. Following that notice, the central agency has searched on its three premises in Bengaluru in April in the case involving Raveendran and his firm under the provisions of FEMA. The ED during that time asserted that it had seized various incriminating documents and digital data.
Meanwhile, some former employees at Byju's have alleged that the company has failed to meet the deadline for full and final settlement of laid-off workers. Byju's workforce has come down to 31,000-33,000 at group level from 50,000 in October 2022.
"I am writing to bring to your attention that I have not received my Full and Final (FNF) payment within the specified timeframe of 45 days and it's about 90 days and I did not get proper resolve from separation team fnf team and all," a former BYJU'S employee wrote on a social media platform.
When contacted, the employee claimed that full and final settlement of many employees whom he knows has not been settled yet. An employee sent out an email to several media persons claiming that he was promised by the HR manager at Byju's that he would be paid the September month salary along with one month's severance pay by October and later he got an email which deferred the date to November 17.
The employee said that the payment is still getting delayed. The firm did not offer any comment on the email query sent in this regard.