FIITJEE allegedly shut 32 centres, left 14,411 students without coaching: ED

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a chargesheet against FIITJEE and its directors, husband-wife duo Dinesh Kumar Goel and Monila Goel, on money laundering charges linked to alleged misappropriation of over Rs 85 crore collected from students. The central agency's Lucknow zonal office filed the prosecution complaint (chargesheet) before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The ED said in a statement that FIITJEE Ltd. and the Goels have been named as accused in the chargesheet. The agency has sought their conviction under the PMLA, apart from confiscation of properties worth Rs 71.88 crore that were seized and provisionally attached during the investigation.

PTI has sought a response from FIITJEE Ltd. and the story will be updated once it is received. The agency provisionally attached assets worth Rs 66.92 crore in this case on October 9 and seized Rs 10 lakh in cash and jewellery worth Rs 4.86 crore during searches conducted in April 2025.

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ED's money laundering case

According to the ED, the retained and misappropriated fees amounted to Rs 85.79 crore, which has been categorised as the proceeds of crime in this case. The ED's money laundering case stems from four police FIRs -- two each filed by Uttar Pradesh Police in Noida and Madhya Pradesh Police in Bhopal -- alleging that the coaching institute collected fees of Rs 2.8 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh per student in advance for 2-4 year coaching programmes for competitive examinations such as Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for the IITs on the assurance that the full programme would be delivered. However, according to the ED, the faculty left due to "unpaid" salaries and the centres closed "abruptly" without prior notice.

It was further alleged that the management "diverted" the fees and continued to collect fees from new students based on "false" assurances even after the faculty had left. The ED alleged that its probe found that FIITJEE abruptly closed 32 centres between May 2024 and February 2025, leaving 14,411 enrolled students without the coaching they had paid for. It added that the company continued to admit students, even for programmes running up to March 2029, although it knew that it could not deliver them. The collected fees were spent while the company operated at a continuous deficit, the agency claimed. It further claimed that the Goels drew Rs 24.92 crore in salary starting 2022-23.

"As the Goel family holds 86.31 per cent of the shares, the directors approved their own salaries without independent checks. They paid themselves first, even as other employees' salaries were delayed/unpaid," the ED said. It further said that Dinesh Kumar drew a salary of about Rs 56 lakh per month while Monila drew more than Rs 25 lakh per month, though she admitted that she did not attend office regularly and only signed cheques from home. The ED alleged payments to Monila continued even when the coaching centres were closing. Noida Police had earlier filed a chargesheet against the couple based on statements of 300 victims, the operators of the coaching centre and other witnesses, along with fee receipts, according to the ED. The company was launched in 1992 with its head office in Delhi.