Delhi HC restrains Ashneer Grover from selling shares transferred by Bhavik Koladiya

Ashneer Grover suffers a fresh blow from Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on April 30 restrained former managing director of BharatPe, Ashneer Grover from alienating, creating any third party rights on the shares transferred to him by co-founder Bhavik Koladiya.

The court noted that the interim order will remain in place till the time the litigation between Grover and Koladiya is disposed off.

Koldiya had initiated this litigation against Ashneer Grover alleging that the latter did not pay for the shares he had transferred to him. He further claimed that he had transferred 6,110 shares (3.09 percent) of BharatPe.

According to sources, Koladiya had signed an agreement to sell around 1611 shares (now 16,110 plus after 1:10 splitting by company) a few years ago at the price of Rs 5,000 per share. However, Grover allegedly failed to pay the amount of Rs 88 lakh to him. As a result, Koladiya told the court that he should get his shares back.

As such, Grover holds a roughly 8.5 percent stake in BharatPe, of which 1.4 percent was not vested and was released upon his resignation. Another 3.09 percent is now claimed by Koladiya. If both these claims against Grover go through, his shareholding in BharatPe will reduce by half to around 4 percent.

In August 2022, Koladiya, who was working with the company as a consultant overseeing its technology and product functions, resigned from his post at BharatPe.

During that time, Koladiya had said BharatPe was one of his largest investments and he would continue to stay invested in the company for the foreseeable future.

Koladiya founded the fintech firm in 2017 along with Shashvat Nakrani, his schoolteacher's son. In 2018, the duo came out in search of a chief executive for the company and subsequently they joined hands with Grover.