ED seeks look out circular against Byju Raveendran
ED) has asked the Bureau of Immigration (BOI) to issue a look out circular (LOC) against Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO of the eponymous, embattled edtech company Byju's, people with knowledge of the matter told ET. The central agency approached BOI earlier this month to issue a fresh LOC to ensure that Raveendran does not leave the country.
An LOC 'on intimation' has already been issued against Raveendran. It was opened more than one and a half years ago at the request of the ED's Kochi office. However, the investigation was later transferred to the Bengaluru office of the agency.
The LOC 'on intimation' results in immigration authorities informing a probe agency about the individual going overseas but the person is not stopped from leaving the country.
The ED's Bengaluru office, which is probing alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations, recently took the view that an LOC needs to be issued against Raveendran to prevent him from leaving the country, said people in the know.
Raveendran has mostly been shuttling between Delhi and Dubai for the past three years. He was in Bengaluru earlier this week, said people aware of the matter. The people cited above also told ET that Raveendran was in Delhi last week on a work trip. Raveendran told ET that he was currently in Dubai. He had left for the emirate earlier this week and «will be travelling to Singapore tomorrow».
The decision to approach the BOI for a «revised» LOC was taken keeping in view the «interest of investors», according to one of the
