BharatPe fraud plaint: Delhi Police's EOW summons Ashneer Grover, wife on November 21

New Delhi: The Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing has summoned BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain for questioning in connection with an alleged Rs 81-crore fraud at the fintech unicorn, police sources said on Friday.

The couple has been asked to appear at the Economic Offences Wing's (EOW) Mandir Marg office on November 21 to join the probe being carried out on a complaint by BharatPe, the sources said.

The development came hours after Grover in a post on X claimed that he was stopped at the Delhi airport on Thursday when he and his wife were travelling to New York for vacation.

EOW officials confirmed the summons and told PTI that the couple was stopped after a lookout circular was issued against them.

The EOW filed an FIR against Grover, Madhuri Jain and their family members Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain in May in the alleged Rs 81-crore fraud case.

BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages of about Rs 81.30 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through passthrough vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri Jain and the destruction of evidence.

EOW sources said the officials filed a status report in court on November 7.

If convicted, the accused face between 10 years to life in prison.

In December 2022, BharatPe had also filed a civil suit in Delhi High Court against Grover and his family, seeking up to Rs 88.67 crore in damages for alleged cheating and embezzlement of funds.