The Economic Offences Wing on Wednesday registered an FIR against former BharatPe managing director Ashneer Grover and his family for defrauding BharatPe of Rs 81 crore, reported Mint quoting sources. The FIR has been registered against Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, Deepak Gupta, Sureash Jain and Shwetank Jain under eight sections of criminal offences.
The Economic Offences Wing on Wednesday filed an FIR against former BharatPe managing director Ashneer Grover and his family for defrauding BharatPe of Rs 81 crore, reported Mint quoting sources. The FIR has been registered against Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, Deepak Gupta, Sureash Jain and Shwetank Jain under eight sections of criminal offences.
The criminal offences include sections 409 for criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant or agent, 420 for cheating, 467 for forgery of valuable security and 120B for criminal conspiracy.
According to the source as quoted by the Mint the FIR reads, "The complain was received at EOW and enquiry has been conducted into the allegations levelled against alleged persons. From the contents of the complaint and enquiry conducted so far, prima-facie offences punishable under Sections 406/408/409/420/467/468/471/120B IPC are made out."
EOW now has the power to arrest all the accused.
BharatPe welcomes the registration
BharatPe welcomed the registration of FIR saying, "For the last 15 months, the company has been facing a vicious and malicious campaign run by Grover against the company, the board and its employees".
"The registration of the FIR is a step in the right direction, which unearths various suspicious transactions made by the family for their personal pecuniary gains," it said in a statement.
The FIR, it said, will now enable law enforcement agencies to investigate deeper into the criminality and bring the culprits to books.
"We have full faith in our country's judicial and law enforcement systems and are optimistic that this case will reach its logical conclusion. We will continue to extend all possible cooperation to the authorities," it added.
Ashneer Grover vs BharatPe
In the last six months five lawsuits have been filed against Ashneer Grover and he has been tangled in a legal battle with BharatPe after financial irregularities surfaced in the company in January 2022. Grover was terminated form the company in March last year.
In December 2022, BharatPe filed a criminal complaint against Groover and his family with the EOW of Delhi Police. The company alleged a fraud of Rs 81.28 crore, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The Delhi-based fintech unicorn in the same month also file a civil suit in the Delhi High Court looking to recover over Rs 88.67 crore in damages from the ex-MD and his family.
The company had also filed an arbitration claim in Singapore to get bakc 1.4 per cent of restricted shares allotted to Grover and prevent him from using the title of BharatPe founder. In January 2023, Koladiya sued Grover to reclaim the shares that were transferred to him in December 2018.
Last month, the company's co-founder Shashvat Nakrani had also filed a case over the unpaid shares.
