The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has summoned Indian entrepreneur Ashneer Grover and his spouse Madhuri Jain due to allegations of fraud at the financial behemoth BharatPe. Before leaving the company in late February 2022, Ashneer Grover was a co-founder and Managing Director (MD).
Grover and his family were charged by BharatPe of harming the company to the tune of Rs 81 crore ($9.7 million).In May, a formal complaint was lodged against Grover, Jain, and their relatives, which included Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain, and Shwetank Jain.
Grover and his family were stopped from leaving Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport by immigration officers when they discovered on Friday, November 17, that the EOW had issued a lookout circular against them.It is stated that the pair was stopped while on vacation in the US by the former boss of BharatPe.
Legal Allegations
According to a status report filed by the EOW at the Delhi High Court, Grover reportedly utilized backdated invoices to move monies from BharatPe’s accounts for payment of commissions for recruitment activities.
He is also accused of paying Rs 7.6 crore to fake firms. Also, he allegedly embezzled cash worth Rs 71.76 crore. Additionally, Rs 1.66 crore was paid as a penalty to GST authorities. If found guilty under these charges, the Grover couple could face a jail term from 10 years to life imprisonment. Grover now runs CrickPe, a fantasy sports app.
Grover’s counter-argument
“I had not received any communication or summon from EoW since FIR in May, till 8 am today (November 17)… 7 hours after returning from airport,” Ashneer penned down on X.
“At immigration, they said, ‘LoC laga hua hai sir – EOW se check kar ke batate hai (There is a LoC, sir… we will check with EoW and let you know)’.”
“I found it strange as (I) have travelled four times internationally since (the) FIR (was) filed in May – (there has) never been a problem… I had not even been summoned once.”
