‘Used personal funds to clear BCCI’s dues’ – Times of India

MUMBAI/CHENNAI: Riju Ravindran, member of Byju’s board and the brother of founder Byju Raveendran, has used funds raised by him in personal capacity to repay the Rs 159 crore dues that the startup owes to the BCCI. He raised the funds by selling his shares in Byju’s parent Think & Learn through May 2015-Jan 2022, he said in an undertaking filed in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Thursday.
Ravindran refuted the company’s US-based lenders’ claim that he was using a portion of the missing $533 million in loan proceeds extended by them to Byju’s to clear BCCI’s payments.
He added that he had raised about Rs 3,600 crore “from the sale and the gains/income on such sale of shares” to various investors. About Rs 1,050 crore of the amount was paid as income tax while over Rs 2,500 crore was infused into the troubled startup to keep the business running. “The amounts that remained with me were used to pay the first tranche of the settlement amount (Rs 50 crore) to BCCI,” Ravindran said in the undertaking, a copy of which has been reviewed by TOI.
The numbers are approximate figures due to the appreciation/depreciation of investments, sources said. The remainder of the settlement amount will be paid from liquidation of his personal assets in India, Ravindran said. “I have not received any portion of the $533 million that are the subject matter of the proceedings before the Delaware Bankruptcy Court and, accordingly, no part of those funds have been, or will be, used to pay the BCCI… I state and confirm that no part of the settlement amount is being paid in violation of any order passed by any court or tribunal, including orders passed by the Delaware Bankruptcy Court,” Ravindran said in his 84-page undertaking.
Byju’s overseas lenders have mounted a legal challenge against Ravindran and Byju’s Alpha (Byju’s US subsidiary set up to receive the $1.2 billion term loan which now is under the control of lenders) in the US to establish the location of the funds which they have accused the startup of hiding.
The NCLAT will pronounce an order on Friday on the settlement issue and has stayed the formation of the committee of creditors till then.