BharatPe fraud case: EOW arrests man in connection with payment of Rs 72 crore to non-existing firms

BharatPe fraud case: EOW arrests man in connection with payment of Rs 72 crore to non-existing firms

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police has arrested a man in connection with the BharatPe fraud case, official sources said on Friday.

They said Amit Kumar Bansal was arrested on August 6 and produced before a court that sent him to police custody for six days.

According to Bansal's remand documents, he was one of the members of the non-existing firms that had received payments of Rs 72 crore from the then directors of BharatPe between 2019 and 2021.

In its remand application, the EOW had said the "details of 33 such non-existing vendors were identified and an inquiry was carried out, wherein it was revealed that the accused and his brother were associated with the said non-existing firms".

The firms had used the same email ID — meet.bansal1983@gmil.com — it said.

The EOW filed an FIR against BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain and their family members Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain in May 2023 in the Rs 81-crore fraud case.

BharatPe has accused Grover and his family of causing losses to the firm to the tune of about Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human-resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input-tax credit and payment of penalty to Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities, illegal payments to travel agencies, invoices forged by Jain and destruction of evidence.

EOW officials, however, did not respond to phone calls and text messages made in order to obtain information regarding developments in the case.