The Ashneer Grover-BharatPe feud touched a new low on Thursday when an employee complained of unpaid salaries and CEO Suhail Sameer replied that the company is not left with money since Ashneer stole all of it.
Meanwhile, Grover on Friday wrote to the BharatPe board, asking it to serve a ‘show cause’ notice to the CEO. “I would want to ask what action is the board going to take against Suhail Sameer?” Grover questioned.
The Grover-Sameer LinkedIn spat
Controversy ensued on LinkedIn on April 6, when an IT associate at BharatPe, Karan Sarki, posted that he along with other staffers had not received their salaries for March. Grover, who founded BharatPe, replied to the post asking the fintech company to look into the matter.
Grover’s sister Aashima chimed in too and called the top management of Bharatpe as a “shameless bunch”. To this, Sameer’s rejoinder was, “Tere bhai ne saara paisa chura liya (your brother stole all the money). Very little left to pay salaries.”
However, seeing the outburst of people in the comment section, Sameer apologised. “I apologise to have irked many of you. In hindsight, it was out of line,” he wrote.
The CEO assured that they are working on past employees full and final being paid out. “My comment was a reaction to a particular statement, not the post. But I accept the mistake. I request you to also have patience, and refrain from building a story based on false narrative,” he added.
Grover’s sister Aashima chimed in too and called the top management of Bharatpe as a “shameless bunch”. To this, Sameer’s rejoinder was, “Tere bhai ne saara paisa chura liya (your brother stole all the money). Very little left to pay salaries.”
The Shark Tank India judge shot off his letter at Friday midnight, in which he alleged that Sameer was under the influence of ‘alcohol’ and ‘drugs’ when he put the said reply.
“As a board under the chairmanship of Rajnish Kumar has claimed to be the epitome of corporate governance, I would want to ask what action is the board going to take against Suhail Sameer? Going by precedents and self-proclaimed high standards of this board, the CEO should be immediately served a show cause notice for his despicable public behaviour and immediately put on leave of absence to manage the damage on the brand of the company,” Grover wrote.
Grover also sought the resignation of board chairman and veteran banker Rajnish Kumar, stating that under his leadership, the current management feels that they have ‘carte blanche from the board and its chairman to target him (Grover) and his family.
“The current incident clearly brings out the fact that Rajnish Kumar condoning the life threat to me by Bhavik Koladiya from his own house and all the planned media leaks leading to my resignation in self-respect, has further emboldened the current management to act as hooligans…” said Grover.
Grover’s latest dig at company’s leadership
The BharatPe founder launched a fresh salvo at the leadership of board chairman Rajnish Kumar and CEO Suhail Sameer on Thursday. Grover took a dig at them over the first quarter of ‘degrowth’ and ‘maximum cash burn’.
Grover, while stating that markets are the ultimate test and truth, said, “So I just heard @bharatpeindia closed it’s first quarter of ‘degrowth’ and ‘maximum cash burn’ under able (sic) leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer.”
In an apparent claim that BharatPe’s leadership is unable to run the fintech company properly, Grover wrote, “Chaabi chheenna and hatti chalana do alag alag skills hai! Ab Nani yaad aayegi.”
