The Enforcement Directorate (ED) stated on Friday that it has seized Rs 8.26 crore under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) from Pigeon Education Technology India, which owns Bengaluru-based edtech firm Odaclass.

This comes just days after the ED search and seizure operation at the startup. The law enforcement agency then claimed that the firm was entirely owned by Chinese citizens and that all business decisions, including financial ones, were made in China.

Furthermore, the ED said it found that the company transferred 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.

ED, in a statement, said, "The company could not produce any proof of receipt of service on its part and proof of any advertisement published against the said expenses. Further, the director and accounts manager of the company has also admitted during investigation that the payments were made only on the instructions of Chinese director Liu Kan."

Vedanta Hamirwasia, the Indian director of the company, told the watchdog that the Chinese director told him that the said advertisements were published on Google and Facebook. However, no confirmation or invoice raised by these platforms was submitted to the agency, according to media reports.

In addition, several additional Chinese firms operating in the nation have come under the investigation of the agency. Earlier in March, the ED attached movable assets worth Rs 106 crore belonging to numerous lending app operators with linkages to Chinese businesses and nationals.