“Ashneer Grover No Longer Employee, Founder”: BharatPe Threatens To Sue

New Delhi: BharatPe on Wednesday lashed out at Ashneer Grover for “spinning lies and hurling baseless allegations and threats” against the company just a day after he resigned from the digital payments firm.

The fintech company stated that Grover and his family “engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds” and, as a result, he “is no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company”. In response, Grover said, the BharatPe Board’s statement “comes from a position of personal hatred and low thinking.”

Here’s Your 10-Point Cheatsheet To This Big Story:

1. Grover had resigned as Managing Director and Board Director of BharatPe on Tuesday. In a letter addressed to the Board, he wrote, “I write this with a heavy heart as today I am being forced to bid adieu to a company of which I am a founder.”
2. BharatPe said he resigned after receiving the agenda for an upcoming board meeting that included submission of an independent audit regarding his conduct.
3. “Minutes after Mr. Ashneer Grover received notice that some of the results of the inquiry would be presented to the Board, he quickly shirked responsibility by sending an email to the Board submitting his resignation and fabricating another false narrative of the events to the public,” BharatPe said on Wednesday.
4. “The Board will not allow the deplorable conduct of the Grover family to tarnish BharatPe’s reputation or that of its hard-working employees and world-class technology. As a result of his misdeeds, Mr Grover is no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company,” the payments firm added.
5. It further stated that BharatPe “reserves all rights to take further legal action against him and his family.”
6. Previously, BharatPe had sacked his wife Madhuri Jain Grover for alleged financial irregularities ranging from producing fake invoices to billing the company for personal beauty treatment and trips abroad. She was the Head of Controls in BharatPe.
7. It all started when an audio clip emerged, in which Mr Grover was allegedly heard threatening an employee of Kotak Wealth Management over his failure to secure financing for Nykaa’s initial share sale.
8. After that, BharatPe came under intense scrutiny since Mr Grover sought damages from Uday Kotak, alleging Kotak Mahindra Bank declined to finance a personal investment.
9. Kotak Bank has in turn alleged in legal documents that Mr Grover used “foul” language towards its employees. Mr Grover was then sent on voluntary leave of absence.
10. Amid growing concerns over governance issues, BharatPe had conducted an independent audit of its internal process and systems. (Source: NDTV)