After Ashneer Grover’s bitter exit from the fintech unicorn BharatPe he co-founded, the digital payments company is seeking Rs 88 crore in damages from him, wife Madhuri Jain and other family members. Former BharatPe Founder and CEO Grover and his wife have also been issued summons by the Delhi High Court on Thursday.
BharatPe had filed a criminal case against Jain and Grover on 17 counts, including criminal breach of trust, embezzlement of funds, as well as a civil suit that seeks Rs 80 crore in damages. In the first hearing on Thursday, the court summoned the couple and gave them two weeks to reply to the company’s charges.
“BharatPe has initiated civil and criminal action against erstwhile cofounder and managing director Ashneer Grover, former head of controls Madhuri Jain Grover, and other connected parties of their family for various claims, including misappropriation of company funds. We have full faith in the courts and authorities and are confident that justice will be done,” said a BharatPe spokesperson.
However, counsel representing Grover argued that a legal suit was never served to them.
The next hearing will be on January 9, 2023.
The fintech has alleged that the Grover family made fake bills, enlisted fictitious vendors to provide services to the company, and overcharged the company for recruitment.
BharatPe has sought Rs 83 crore of claims for misappropriation of funds and Rs 5 crore for reputational damage to the company due to Grover’s public statements. In its plea, the fintech has alleged that once the Defendants occupied these key positions and roles, they treated the Plaintiff as their personal fiefdom. By willfully perpetuating the lack of internal governance policies in the Plaintiff company, they conducted its affairs for their personal benefit, it added.
During the court hearing today, the counsel representing BharatPe counsel had argued that the co-founder and his wife have been running a “vicious and vitriolic campaign” against the company on Twitter. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing BharatPe, urged the court to intervene to stop Grover from continuing his ‘vitriolic campaign’ against the company on social media.
“Right now, it is just a complaint and not an FIR. If the Grovers are found guilty they might face imprisonment of 10 years,” Moneycontrol quoted a person in the know as saying.
The Ashneer Grover-BharatPe Saga
Ashneer Grover, who had also appeared as a judge on the reality show Shark Tank India, made a bitter exit from BharatPe after his wife Madhuri, who was the head of controls at the fintech, was fired earlier this year after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Grover quit as the CEO in March following a public dispute with the board. Since then, both Grover and Jain have at different times posted their views on the goings on at the company on Twitter.
The chaos started earlier this year in January when the Grover-founded fintech’s board appointed independent auditors A&M and PricewaterhouseCoopers to check alleged financial malpractices and corporate misgovernance at the firm. This was after BharatPe received complaints from an internal whistleblower.
This led to the ouster of Grover’s wife. After Grover, eventually, quit in March alleging that he has been ‘vilified’ and treated in the ‘most disrespectful manner’. Following this, BharatPe stripped the co-founder of all positions for his alleged ‘misdeeds’.
Mr Grover is no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company, BharatPe had said.
