BharatPe co-founder and Shark Tank India fame Ashneer Grover and his spouse Madhuri Jain were stopped at terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Thursday, November 16, while they were travelling to New York.
The action was taken based on a lookout circular (LOC) that the Delhi Police’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) issued against them earlier this week amid ongoing investigations against the two for alleged fraud at BharatPe that had caused a loss of Rs 81 crore to the company.
A letter of caution, or LoC, is a circular letter that law enforcement uses to determine if a person is wanted. A person who is the subject of a LoC is prohibited from leaving the nation.
Speaking about the development, Sindhu Pillai, joint commissioner of police (EOW), said, “They were detained before security check and asked to return to their Delhi residence and join the probe at the EOW office at Mandir Marg next week.”
Pillai also said that the LoC was only to stop the couple from travelling abroad and that they have not been arrested.
Grover, meanwhile, took to X to inform about the same. He wrote a long post where he laughed off the entire situation as he mentioned ‘facts’ about the case due to which he was stopped from travelling abroad. He claimed that he had “not received any communication or summon from EOW since FIR in May till 8 AM today 17 morning (7 hours after returning from the airport).”
According to reports, the LoC was issued to the couple by EOW earlier this week. The agency, in a status report submitted to the Delhi High Court, had noted that there were differences in vendor invoices earlier this week in a status report to the Delhi High Court. They also stated that certain human resource (HR) consultancies associated with BharatPe had been set up to siphon money from the fintech startup.
It was discovered that the eight HR consultants in question were connected to family members of Madhuri Jain, the ex-control head of the fintech company and Ashneer Grover’s wife. According to the EOW, the probe is still in its early phases. The pair have been asked to come before the EOW next week to participate in the investigation, according to sources.
Zulfiquar Memon of MZM Legal, counsel for Bharat Pe informed, “After the latest status report filed by the EOW in the Delhi HC, where they have found evidence of embezzlement, it is only appropriate for the EOW to issue a LOC against the accused.”
Former BharatPe managing director Ashneer Grover and his wife booked for fraud
In May this year, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi police registered a case against former Bharat pe managing Director Ashneer Grover, his wife and others “for using company funds inappropriately based on various forged documents”.
It was alleged that they had embezzled money and caused losses to Resilient Innovations Private Limited, the company that manages BharatPe, totalling Rs 81 crore.
The FIR had been registered under 20/406/408/409/467/468/471/120B sections of IPC.
Ashneer Grover had resigned after the firm sacked his wife, Madhuri Jain, over financial irregularities
Ashneer Grover had sent an e-mail to the company board late on February 28, 2022, informing them about their resignation amid the ongoing investigation into the financial fraud at the company. Ashneer’s resignation had come a day after Ashneer Grover lost the arbitration in Singapore he filed against the fintech platform for launching a probe against him and almost a week after the firm sacked his wife, Madhuri Jain, who was the company’s head of controls, for alleged financial irregularities including creating bogus invoices and billing the company for personal beauty treatments and vacations overseas.