Criminal complaints lodged against Shark Tank fame Ashneer Grover and family
By
RUBY ZAIDI
Fintech unicorn BharatPe has accused its ousted managing director Shark Tank fame Ashneer Grover, and his family of embezzling company funds to pay for personal expenses, including rent, plane tickets, and skincare products, as well as funnelling money to fake vendors and recruitment services.
In a civil lawsuit filed in the Delhi high court on Thursday, BharatPe has sought ₹88.67 crore in damages from Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, and family members. It said Grover and his family created fictitious vendors in Panipat to provide services to BharatPe, raised fake invoices and overcharged the firm for recruitment.
The payments firm also filed a criminal complaint against Grover and his family, including Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain, with the Delhi Police. BharatPe is seeking damages from Grover and family, including a claim for payment made against the invoices of non-existent vendors, amounting to ₹71.7 crore; payments made to vendors purportedly providing recruitment services totalling ₹7.6 crore; ₹5 crore in damages for loss of reputation to the company caused by tweets and other statements made by Grover and his family members.
BharatPe claimed Grover has been running a “vicious campaign” against the company on social media.“The civil complaint is for recovery of losses BharatPe has faced because of the acts of Ashneer, his wife and his family. This is one team—headed by Madhuri Jain Grover, advised and guided by Grover, and then others—BharatPe is going against,” a person close to the matter said, seeking anonymity.
Grover and Madhuri Jain Grover’s counsel said his client was not served a notice and that “they only came to know about this through print media today”.
The Delhi high court asked Grover and his family to respond to the company’s charges within two weeks. The next hearing will be in the first week of January. Law firm Trilegal is representing BharatPe in the civil suit filed in the high court.
BharatPe has filed a criminal complaint against Grover and his family with the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police, alleging criminal breach of trust, conspiracy, cheating, forgery and destruction of evidence.
