NEW DELHI: Online-to-offline coaching chain BYJU’s, which had come under scrutiny by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations in April this year has been asked to reply on the misuse of its two rented properties operated from a prime residential area of Delhi.
Criticism has mounted on BYJU’s over tax fraud, money laundering, non-payment of employee salaries and fostering an abhorrent toxic work culture. This controversy comes on a day when BYJU’s founder Byju Raveendran, has missed finding a spot on the Hurun India rich list 2023.
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The company’s two centres, located in Old Rajinder Nagar and Najafgarh, have been slapped with Section 345 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act.
The MCD has directed these centres to cease the misuse and bring the premises into compliance with permitted use within 48 hours, failure to do so will result in MCD sealing the premises.
A similar notice was also pasted at BYJU’s Old Rajinder Nagar centre, which also mentioned two other coaching centres, Sriram IAS and Insight IAS, operating within the same building.
The notices, though dated June and August were pasted at BYJU’s office in Najafgarh and read, “After careful consideration of the reports at hand, it has been determined that there is a misuse of the premises. In order to address this violation and prevent any further disputes regarding the misuse of the said premises, it is necessary to take action under Section 345-A of the D.M.C. Act against the aforementioned premises.”
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“You are hereby instructed to cease the misuse and bring the premises into compliance with the Master Plan 2021/UBBL-2016 within 48 hours. Failure to do so will result in the premises being sealed without any additional notice,” the order by Abhishek Kumar, deputy commissioner, Karol Bagh Zone, MCD, said.
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In December 2022, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights issued a summons to Raveendran, over allegations of using unethical practices to attract children and parents to purchase the company’s courses and products.
READ MORE: ED searches properties of Byju’s CEO for violating foreign funding laws