Ashneer Grover, who has been engaged in a battle with the board of fintech BharatPe, has resigned as MD and director, days after his wife Madhuri Jain Grover had been terminated as the head of controls on allegations of funds misappropriation.
The former BharatPe MD speaks with CNBC-TV18 Managing Editor Shereen Bhan and shares his thoughts on his resignation from the firm and his next agenda.
ALSO READ: Ashneer Grover resigns as BharatPe MD and director
Edited excerpts of the interview:
Q: Why the decision to resign?
Ashneer Grover: The thing that made me do this is the loss of class in this battle. I have not seen in any organisation any internal assessment or an audit or an interview in a more callous and deliberately public manner than has been done by the BharatPe Group. So for me, the manner in which they have done the above things clearly tells me they are prejudiced, clearly tells me they have an agenda. They have sort of lost all sense of morality and maintaining confidentiality... and I have been thinking of this ever since they sort of sent a letter to my wife.
Why do you think the board is biased? Why are you saying that this is a biased board, that Rajnish Kumar and others have an agenda against you?
Absolutely it is biased. See, when I brought Kewal (Kundanlal Handa) in, the whole agenda was to build an institution out of this, right! But you will get to know a person or their actions better when you deal with them directly. Now you tell me here (Rajnish Kumar) was the chairman of SBI, he would have handled atleast 10 lakh employees or so, and an organisation spread across pan India and everything breaks every day. How much would you hear about things going bad at SBI? You have taken on yourself that you are going to run this review process and ever since you have been running this review process, every single piece of paper is leaked to the media. I sometimes feel, sometimes Rajnish claims to see from the news what he is signing on because it already leaked to the news. So, my point is either you are incapable, which you are clearly not, or you are complacent in the whole thing in the media leak. There can't be any third outcome of this, right! So you can't tell me 'Oh, the board minutes are leaked'.
What is the basis for your allegations that you are making here Ashneer, that the leaks are being put out by somebody like Rajnish Kumar? Why is everybody against you and why do you believe everybody wants you out?
See here is the thing. Just because everyone is against me, it doesn't make them right, it's not a count by vote, so let's put that aside. With Rajnish Kumar I have a simple agenda. I have more than 100 WhatsApp messages with him saying 'sir this leak today, please take care, please resolve it...right'. I have sort of humbly put my hands in front of him saying 'sir what is happening, this could not have leaked from anywhere else'. You tell me Shereen for which startup have you seen a review where, from the board minutes to the report to someone's termination letter... I don't know what has not leaked in this. It's a completely compromised thing. I mean, someone has to look some other way, if you feel that this is something genuine. And the leaks are happening...where are the leaks happening on the email..between two emails the leaks happen.
As of today do you acknowledge that there was ever any financial irregularity, any irregularity within the company that require redressal, cross correction or review?
Absolutely, absolutely not.
Can you explain to us Ashneer the purported audio clip, was the start of unravelling so to speak? Was that you, was it not you?
Absolutely it was not me. If you are claiming there is an audio, there has been another person on the other side of the audio. Where is that person? Where has Kotak gone and done anything? What were they waiting for 3 months for? ... my point is I have put, along with the emails I have got for the scamster claiming that he will make the audio clip viral and I need to give him this much money. I put it on Twitter. Now the audio gets removed, what do you want me to do? Keep my tweet hanging in the air? The post gets removed, the comment gets removed...if the question is not there, what is the answer for? I dare you to prove it (the person in the audio is me).
There is a board meeting BharatPe has called today and you have been asked to attend as well? Do you intend to attend?
This is a very funny thing. The board meeting of BharatPe is scheduled at 11:56 pm in the night. So you are assuming everyone is awake or either assuming that everyone would work by US timing and BharatPe board is a call centre servicing the investors in the US... you had the whole day, why are you sending a meeting in white, for a meeting next day which is an important meeting. At 11:56 pm in the night, the company has to answer this. Why would I go, I have already resigned. I have resigned from the board, I have resigned as MD. The board meeting has no meaning.
How much do you currently hold in the company, because publically it is 9.5 percent. You are the largest individual shareholder, but there have been dilution since the last trance. What is your current hold in BharatPe?
It will still be 8-9 percent after this.
Here's the full interview:
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