Bank accounts frozen by ED don't belong to Paytm, clarifies company

Fintech solutions provider One 97 Communications, which operates the popular payment platform Paytm, dismissed reports that said its bank accounts were frozen after recent raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Chinese loan app case.

"... As mentioned in our exchange filing, ED instructed us to freeze certain amount from MIDs of specific merchant entities and none of these funds belong to Paytm or our group companies," the Paytm said in a tweet.

Earlier on Friday, reports said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) detected and froze ₹46.67 crore kept in various bank accounts and virtual accounts of Easebuzz, Razorpay, Cashfree and Paytm.

Earlier this, the ED carried out search operations at six premises in Bengaluru concerning an investigation of what it termed a Chinese loan app case. The raids were conducted under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The premises of Razorpay, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services and entities "controlled" by Chinese persons were covered in the search operation, ED had said.

"As a part of ongoing investigations on a specific set of merchants, the ED has sought information regarding such merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions. It is hereby clarified that these merchants are independent entities, and none of them our group entities," Paytm had earlier clarified through a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges.

"We are, and will continue to, fully cooperate with the authorities, and all the directive actions are being duly complied with," it had added.

During the search operations, ED said it noticed that the entities raided were generating proceeds of crime through various merchant IDs and accounts held with payment gateways and banks and they were not operating from the addresses given on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' website or registered addresses and having fake addresses.