The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is gathering information about India’s highly-valued edtech platform Byju’s after its auditor DELOITTE HASKINS AND Sells and three board members stepped down. A report by Bloomberg revealed that the Ministry has been seeking more information on the start-up. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the body will assess all the necessary information and decide whether it will launch an investigation against the edtech giant.
When asked, a spokesperson from Think and Learn Private Limited, the parent of Byju’s told Mint that the company has not received any notice from the Ministry. “We have not received any such correspondence from MCA regarding this and are not aware of any such inspection," he added.
Under Section 143 of the Company Act, an auditor quitting an audit engagement needs to report it to the government if that body has reasons to believe that fraud has been taking place.
This can brew more trouble for the Indian edtech giant, which has already been going through a lot of trouble. A Moneycontrol report on Monday revealed that the company made multiple delays in processing the payment of employees’ provident fund (PF). The report noted that the delay can attract action from EPFO.
Prior to this, its $1.2 billion term loan B (TLB) restructuring talks with the lenders, failed. The lenders wanted a repayment of $40 million and provided an ultimatum to the edtech company. In response to this, the company filed a lawsuit against US-based investment firm Redwood in the New York Supreme Court accusing the firm of leading a group of investors to play predatory tactics against the edtech giant.