Byju Raveendran takes to X to talk of FIR filed in Feb

Bengaluru: In February, Byju Raveendran filed an FIR against several individuals for being “involved in a criminal conspiracy” against the long-troubled startup Byju’s that he founded. He revealed this in a post on X, late on Monday.

“FIR filed against those involved in a criminal conspiracy against BYJU'S: Pankaj, the RP (resolution professional) who illegally handed over the insolvency process to Dinkar, Rahul & Lokesh from EY who are the agents of GLAS, a collective of crooks. I am not a flower; I am the fire that will shatter GLAS,” Raveendran wrote on X on Monday.

GLAS Trust is the trustee for the US lenders who had loaned $1.2 billion to Byju’s, through the edtech’s special purpose vehicle Byju’s Alpha Inc.

A source in EY, who chose to be anonymous, pointed out that the FIR referred by Raveendran was filed in February. The person also claimed that an interim stay on the FIR has been procured from the court subsequently. However, DH could not ascertain this claim, unable to access the order.

However DH saw a copy of an FIR filed on February 25, this year, before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Bengaluru. Filed by Rajendran Vellapalath, it accused EY partners Dinkar Venkatasubramanian and Lokesh Gupta, EY director Rahul Agarwal, the intern RP (IRP) Pankaj Srivastava, and GLAS Trust, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 3(5),318(4).

Vellapalath is a Byju’s executive who has previously been under legal scrutiny in the US for allegedly draining assets from the firm’s businesses that were under the supervision of a US court. He was also found in contempt of the court for refusing to comply with an order.

The FIR recounted a series of events explaining how EY executives colluded with GLAS, gave false evidence and statements along with the IRP in court proceedings (a punishable offense), misguided judges and officials, and cheated thousands of employees of their salaries.

On Monday night Raveendran did a second post on, tagging Rajiv Memani, Chairman of EY in India, and exclaimed, “Is this fraud individual or institutional? If it's the former, you must suspend the culprits now. There is tons of proof that I will share. There are burning questions you must answer.”

This is not the first time Byju has accused these individuals of a criminal conspiracy.

In a LinkedIn post by him about a month ago, he had said that he had received a document with conclusive evidence of “criminal collusion” between EY India, GLAS Trust, which he said “claims to represent the lenders it does not represent”, and the IRP. He requested authorities to take up a thorough investigation of the matter.

This, reportedly, began when Byju and other employees received an email from a whistleblower at EY with proof of its executives’ covert involvement in Byju’s insolvency. According to a source in Byju’s, along with the documents, there were call recordings and other evidence provided.