DH Deciphers | The Delhi Police look-out circular against BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover

Bengaluru: Ashneer Grover, co-founder and former managing director of fintech unicorn BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain were stopped at New Delhi airport from boarding a flight to New York and asked to return home on Thursday evening. This came after Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) issued a lookout circular for the Shark Tank India host earlier this week after submitting a status report of its investigation against Grover with Delhi High Court. In this edition of DH Deciphers, Anjali Jain delves into the EOW’s ongoing investigation, along with other legal battles Grover has been fighting over allegations of fraud since last year.

What are the fresh allegations EOW has made against Grover?

The Delhi Police EOW’s ongoing investigation into financial discrepancies at BharatPe has found that recruitment firms linked to him, his wife and family, used 86 backdated invoices to siphon off money from the company for work that had never been done. The fraudulent invoices mentioned bank account numbers that were created after the invoices were raised, indicating backdating, the investigation found.

“These firms were established and their bank accounts were opened only for the purpose of syphoning of funds and for causing wrongful gain to the alleged persons,” said the status report submitted to the Delhi High Court.

The investigation has named 8 HR firms where company money was routed, claiming that they were registered under addresses belonging to Grover’s wife and relatives. In all, Rs 7.6 crore was found credited to these firms, as per the police.

Why did BharatPe file a criminal complaint against the former MD and his family?

Last year, BharatPe had filed a criminal complaint against the couple on 17 counts, including embezzlement, forgery, and criminal breach of trust. The criminal case sought Rs 88.6 crore in damages from the accused based on funds lost through misappropriation, and additional harm to business and brand image caused by the alleged fraud.

A separate civil lawsuit filed by BharatPe against Grover and his family further accused the couple of misappropriating funds to the tune of Rs 71.76 crore through sham transactions and embezzlement, destruction of evidence and personal enrichment through reimbursements.

This was followed by an FIR filed by the EOW against the couple and their relatives on serious cognisable offences in May this year, which could land the accused behind bars for anywhere between 10 years to life.

Why did Ashneer step down from his post at the company?

Grover had resigned from his posts at BharatPe in February last year close on the heels of his wife getting kicked out over allegations of misappropriation of company money. According to reports, Grover had demanded a payout of Rs 4,000 crore from investors in return for his stake and exit which was rejected by BharatPe. Grover at the time was the biggest shareholder of the company, which has sought to claw back his restricted shares as per the shareholders’ agreement.

The investigation into Grover was initiated after evidence of misconduct came to the fore through leaked audio clips and emails. In January last year, BharatPe brought in independent auditors Alvarez and Marsal to look into the misgovernance issues, which uncovered the financial irregularities by Jain and Grover. These were also combined with claims of a “toxic work culture” within the company that had normalised foul language and behaviour.

What does Grover have to say in his defence?

Since the fiasco began last year, Grover has maintained his innocence, calling it a ploy to take control of his shares in the company. After being sent home from the Airport on Thursday, Grover took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to claim that he is not a flight risk and has in fact travelled overseas four times since the FIR was lodged against him in May. He also claimed that he had no knowledge of the LoC against him till he was detained at the airport, and had not received any summons in the case till early Friday.

Even in his resignation letter, Grover had claimed the allegations against him were “baseless and targeted attacks on him and his family by a few individuals.”