In a major development in the online education racket case, it was found that Odaclass, an EdTech company under Pigeon Education Technology India that provides online education, was owned by Chinese nationals and the Indian directors had nothing to do with it. This was informed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today, May 19, Friday, as stated by a PTI report.
Rs 82.72 crore, that's the amount that was siphoned off to China and Hing Kong by Pigeon Education Technology India, informed the ED. The company was offering online education under Odaclass.
"We have seized Rs 8.26 crore in the case of the firm under Section 37A of the Foreign Exchange Management Act," the ED said.
Developments in the case
Earlier, the ED had conducted searches and initiated seizure action against the company. It had found that 100% of the company was under the ownership of Chinese nationals and all the decisions involved in running the company were made by these people located in China.
"During the investigation, it was ascertained that the company has siphoned off Rs 82.72 crore to China and Hong Kong in the name of advertisement and marketing expenses on the instructions of Chinese director Liu Can. The company could not produce any proof of receipt of service on its part and proof of any advertisement published against the said expenses," said the official.
During the investigation, it was admitted by the company's director and accounts manager that all the payments were made only after the approval of Chinese Director, Liu Kan.
Vedanta Hamirwasia, the Indian Director of the company, informed that it was the Chinese director who stated that the said advertisements were for Google and Facebook though no confirmation in terms of an invoice raised by these platforms were submitted.
The investigation into the matter is still ongoing.
