Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represents BharatPe, has asked the court to step in to prevent Grover from continuing his "vitriolic campaign"...
Digital Desk: BharatPe, a fintech unicorn, is suing former managing director and co-founder Ashneer Grover's wife Madhuri Jain and other family members for up to Rs 88 crore in damages. The Grover family allegedly produced false bills, engaged bogus vendors to supply services to the company, and overcharged the company for recruitment.
The Delhi High Court issued a summons to the Grover family today, instructing them to respond to the company's claims within two weeks. The next hearing has been scheduled for January 9.
Meanwhile, the company has filed a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Grover and his family on 17 charges, including criminal breach of trust, forgery, document fabrication, and embezzlement.
"At the moment, it's simply a complaint, not an FIR." "If the Grovers are proven guilty, they could face ten years in prison," a source added.
Jain was removed as BharatPe's head of controls earlier this year after a forensic investigation identified multiple violations. Following a public disagreement with the board, Ashneer Grover resigned as CEO.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represents BharatPe, has asked the court to intervene to prevent Grover from continuing his "vitriolic campaign" against the company on social media.
The corporation claimed Rs 83 crore in damages for misuse of cash and Rs 5 crore in damages for reputational harm caused by Grover's public utterances in the civil suit.
"Once in these crucial positions and duties, the Defendants regarded the Plaintiff as their domain." "By wilfully maintaining the Plaintiff company's lack of internal governance procedures, they ran its business for their gain," BharatPe claimed in its petition.
For example, the company claimed that the Grovers fabricated falsified vendors and bills for recruiting services to hire personnel who were hired directly by the company. Rohatgi mentioned in court a specific Mr Behl, who was directly hired for a salary of Rs 1 crore, but phoney vendor bills were generated to charge the corporation a 15% commission on the employment.
In another case, the Grovers arranged for a payment to be made to Golden Holidays, a vendor claiming to provide travel agency services, for a reservation in Thailand. Golden Holidays, on the other hand, did not offer any services. Furthermore, the corporation had already paid for the identical bookings and dates to another travel agency, which had given the products and services.
In addition to suspected transactions and fake vendors, the firm stated that Grover made no contributions to the technology or concept of BharatPe. It was stated that his involvement with the company began in 2018 when he made a minor investment of Rs 31,920 for which 3,192 shares were granted.
Grovers, according to the firm, blatantly plundered funds for personal expenses such as rent and utilities on their personal property, payments for family members' plane trips, and the purchase of home items such as two televisions and a refrigerator.
Since the beginning of the year, founder Ashneer Grover has been accused of using abusive language and threatening a Kotak Group employee for failing to acquire an allotment and money for the Nykaa IPO for himself and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.
Grover and Madhuri Jain Grover were then fired from the company due to suspicions of money laundering.
The business had tasked Alvarez and Marsal, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, and PwC with conducting a corporate governance assessment and determining if Grover had engaged in deliberate misconduct.
On May 10, BharatPe said that, following a thorough investigation, the business had decided to take action against personnel who had engaged in malpractice and to reclaim Ashneer Grover's restricted shares.
After raising $370 million led by Tiger Global, the company reached the unicorn club in August 2021. Later in October, the corporation named Rajnish Kumar as chairman.
Kumar has also been drawn into the firm's squabbles, with Grover demanding his dismissal, as has CEO Suhail Sameer, who has overseen the company since Grover's departure.
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