Byju's insolvency: Keralam Police register case over alleged forged lender letter

Kerala Police have registered a criminal case against GLAS Trust Company LLC and others over allegations that a fabricated lender-authorisation letter was used in the insolvency proceedings of Think & Learn Private Limited, the company behind Byju’s.The complaint alleges that the letter was used to support a claim of Rs 11,432.98 crore and secure 99.41 per cent of the voting rights in the committee of creditors.The FIR was registered at Palarivattom Police Station in Ernakulam on October 20 following a complaint by Rajendran Vellappalath, managing director of Voizzit Technology Private Limited. It invokes provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to cheating, forgery, use of a forged document and criminal conspiracy.Byju’s entered insolvency proceedings in July 2024 over unpaid BCCI sponsorship dues of Rs 158.9 crore. The NCLAT later approved a settlement and closed the proceedings, but the Supreme Court set aside that order in October 2024 following a challenge by GLAS Trust. The police complaint centres on a Direction Letter dated July 25, 2024, which was relied upon to establish GLAS Trust's authority to represent lenders in the insolvency proceedings.According to the petitioners’ bench note filed in a review petition before the Kerala High Court, signature pages from a January 18, 2024 Direction Letter were reused in the July 25 letter. They allege that dates, lender names and amounts were changed while the signatures remained unchanged. The petitioners also allege that some amounts were inserted as comments in the electronic document and signature images were copied across pages. They contend that the assembled document was a Word file converted into a PDF rather than an electronically signed document.They have sought examination of the original electronic files alongside the earlier documents to establish the disputed letter's authenticity. These allegations have not been established as judicial findings or independently confirmed forensic conclusions.The authorisation matters because, according to the petitioners, GLAS Trust needed support from lenders representing more than 50 per cent of the relevant loan exposure to act on their behalf.The bench note contends that excluding the disputed signature pages would reduce lender support from approximately 95 per cent to 42 per cent, potentially calling the authorisation into question.The complainant alleges that the disputed letter supported recognition of the Rs 11,432.98 crore claim and 99.41 per cent voting share on August 21, 2024.- Ends