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Creditor Authorisation Under Scrutiny: Kerala Police Book GLAS Trust Over Alleged Document Manipulation in BYJU’S Insolvency

By The Legal Alpha Web Desk · 2 November 2026 · 4 min read
Creditor Authorisation Under Scrutiny: Kerala Police Book GLAS Trust Over Alleged Document Manipulation in BYJU’S Insolvency

The ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process of Think & Learn Private Limited, the parent entity of ed-tech firm BYJU’S, has encountered a criminal dispute in Kerala. Police at the Palarivattom Police Station in Ernakulam registered a First Information Report against US-based administrative agent GLAS Trust Company LLC and several others.

The criminal complaint was lodged by Rajendran Vellappalath, Managing Director of Voizzit Technology Private Limited. The complainant alleges that a key lender-direction instrument dated July 25, 2024—used by GLAS Trust to represent a syndicate of foreign lenders and claim majority control in the Committee of Creditors (CoC)—was manipulated and assembled using reused signature pages and altered loan figures.

Legal Topic

  • Area of Law: Criminal Law & Corporate Insolvency

  • Sub-topic: Document Manipulation, Forgery Allegations, and Creditor Mandate under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)

Core Legal Issue

The fundamental legal question is whether an authorisation document submitted by an administrative trustee to substantiate claims in a corporate insolvency process was unlawfully fabricated, altered, or assembled, and whether criminal investigation processes can run concurrently with statutory insolvency adjudication.

At a procedural level, the dispute turns on whether the evidentiary basis supporting GLAS Trust’s voting share in the CoC meets the legal thresholds of authenticity, and whether the alleged discrepancies in digital documentation amount to offences of cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy under Indian penal law.

What Did the Court / Authority Decide?

  • Registration of FIR: The Palarivattom Police registered FIR No. 0736/2026, commencing a formal criminal investigation into the circumstances under which the direction letter was produced and submitted.

  • Forensic Examination Sought: The investigation involves scrutiny of the original electronic files and email trails between the lenders, the trustee, and resolution professionals to trace file metadata and confirm authenticity.

  • Pending Status: The registration of the FIR represents an initial investigative step. No court has adjudicated on the veracity of the claims or arrived at a finding of guilt against the named entities.

Key Legal Points

  • Evidentiary Threshold of Mandate: Under insolvency procedures, an agent acting on behalf of a financial creditor consortium must demonstrate valid and direct authorisation representing the requisite threshold of underlying debt exposure.

  • Allegations of Digital Alteration: The complaint alleges that digital signatures were copied across pages, numeric loan values inserted via electronic annotations, and a converted text document presented in place of an electronically executed instrument.

  • Impact on Voting Majorities: The petitioner claims that excluding the contested signature pages would reduce the verifiable lender representation from roughly 95 percent to 42 percent, directly falling below the statutory threshold needed to act on behalf of the syndicate.

  • Parallel Civil and Criminal Avenues: While the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) retains jurisdiction over claim verification and CoC composition, jurisdictional police authorities retain the mandate to investigate alleged offences of forgery and cheating.

Relevant Law

  • Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023:

    • Section 318(4) (Cheating)

    • Section 336(3) (Forgery)

    • Section 340(2) (Using as genuine a forged document)

    • Section 61 (Criminal conspiracy)

    • Section 3(5) (Joint liability / common intention)

  • Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC): Sections governing claim verification, representation of financial creditors by trustees/agents, and Committee of Creditors voting thresholds.

Arguments of the Parties

The Complainant / Petitioners: The complainant contended that the July 25, 2024 direction letter was an assembled instrument where dates and figures were altered while previous signatures were reused. They submitted that this document was deployed to unlawfully secure control over an ₹11,432.98 crore debt claim and a 99.41 percent voting share on the CoC, urging cyber-forensic analysis of the raw metadata and source files.

GLAS Trust / Opposing Position: GLAS Trust has consistently maintained in insolvency and appellate forums that it holds the legitimate authority to represent the secured syndicated lenders. In related procedural challenges, the trust has asserted that attacks against its mandate are tactical attempts by adverse parties to stall the statutory Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and delay resolution measures.

Why Does It Matter?

This development introduces significant friction into high-stakes debt restructuring where administrative agents represent cross-border lending syndicates.

If criminal investigations establish procedural fraud or forged documentation within an insolvency claim, it could impact how Resolution Professionals verify foreign proxy authorisations, mandate stricter digital provenance protocols for evidentiary submissions, and create avenues for minority stakeholders to challenge CoC voting configurations through criminal law mechanisms.

Legal Takeaway

The registration of a criminal complaint underscores that procedural instruments submitted in insolvency proceedings remain fully subject to general penal scrutiny regarding fraud and forgery. An administrative trustee's authority to vote on multi-billion-dollar claims depends strictly on the verifiable integrity of its underlying mandates.

Sources

Primary Source:

  • First Information Report (FIR No. 0736/2026), Palarivattom Police Station, Kochi, Kerala Police.

  • Bench Note & Filings in Review Petition No. 1228 of 2026, High Court of Kerala.

Additional Sources:

  • High Court of Kerala and NCLT Case Records (Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd. Insolvency Proceedings).

  • News reports and statutory provisions under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

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