BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and wife Madhuri Jain were stopped at the Delhi International Airport late on Thursday night after a lookout circular was issued against the duo on the orders of the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW. The report said that both were traveling to New York in the US.
This comes after reports citing EOW investigation claimed that BharatPe had allegedly made payments to fake HR consultants run by Grover, Jain and Jain’s family members. He was also accused of backdating invoices for diverting funds.
However, Grover has rejected these claims.
“I will be the last man standing long after ‘BharatPe’, Sequoia (oh sorry they have already come to India), 2 taka illiterate press guys and ‘Twitter’ judges are gone! Mark my words!!” he said in a tweet.
Grover also got into a war of words with Deepak Shenoy, founder and CEO of Capital Mind, when Deepak Shenoy tweeted: “Ashneer Grover clearly siphoned off funds to his family in the name of recruitment services – a well-known mechanism to siphon off money. This was also very foolish – they issued backdated invoices with bank accounts that did not exist on that date!”
Grover replied, “…got an entry worth Rs 53 crore sir.” In addition to judgment, you also have a good memory. But sir, the investors did not get this money from me – as part of the Series E round. So now you quickly give me a clean chit – it will be very useful in the real court.”
Grover has been at the center of several controversies following his public spat with BharatPe, which he co-founded in 2018. While Grover stepped down in March 2022, he claimed that his removal from BharatPe was a conspiracy.
BharatPe had filed a criminal complaint in December 2022 against Grover and family alleging fraud and sought recovery of damages of over Rs 88.67 crore from Grover and family under various heads. Company co-founders Bhavik Koladia and Shahwat Nakrani had also filed complaints against Grover in January and March 2023 respectively for the share dispute.
In May 2023, the Delhi Police Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) filed a First Information Report (FIR) against company co-founder Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain and other family members.
