In a letter written to top officials of the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Ashneer Grover has alleged that the agency's investigation against him in a complaint filed by BharatPe could be 'one-sided' and ‘non-compliant’ with due procedures. He has also appealed EOW to stop the 'wild goose chase' against him.
The letter is dated March 4 and argues that the complaint by BharatPe is incorrect.
In the last few days, Grover has also written letters to the RBI (dated March 6) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (dated March 5). Moneycontrol has reviewed copies of all the three letters.
The former BharatPe managing director wrote these letters after the EOW declined to remove a lookout circular against his wife and him which is preventing the couple from traveling abroad.
The Grovers had requested the EOW to withdraw the lookout circular to allow them to travel to the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates in February and Thailand in March. However, the letters claim that the requests were denied.
In the letter to EOW, he wrote: "... I would urge you to stop the ‘wild goose chase’ you’ve been put on by the complainant, for the malicious purpose of arm – twisting me for my equity shares in BharatPe and file your closure report at the earliest to comprehensively close the matter and dismiss this frivolous FIR."
Further, in the letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ashneer said he met EOW officials in person on February 27 and alleged that the reason given for the imposition of the lookout circular was to make them "submit to investigation." However, he claims to have been fully cooperating in the probe.
Grover and his family are embroiled in multiple legal proceedings which have been brought on by BharatPe, and the company's co-founders Shashvat Nakrani and Bhavik Koladiya.
BharatPe has also sought up to Rs 88 crore in damages from the Grovers and other family members through a civil suit. BharatPe alleges that the Grover family created fake bills, enlisted fictitious vendors to provide services to the company, and overcharged the company for recruitment.
Based on a complaint by fintech unicorn, the Economic Offences Wing filed a first information report against Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Grover and two other family members in May last year.
An FIR was registered against the involved parties on 8 counts of serious cognizable criminal offences.
Since the beginning of 2022, the four-year-old company has been embroiled in controversy after its founder was accused of using inappropriate language and threatening a Kotak Group employee for failing to secure an allotment and funding for the Nykaa IPO for himself and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.
While Grover took a voluntary leave and later resigned as the company's MD, his wife, former head of controls Madhuri Jain, was fired over allegations of misappropriation of funds.
In February 2022, the SIAC denied Grover's appeal to block an internal investigation on multiple grounds.
In December 2022, BharatPe had filed for arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre in order to claw back estranged co-founder Ashneer Grover's restricted shareholding (1.4 percent shareholding) in the company and right to use the founder title. The company has also urged that SIAC award Grover's unvested shares to BharatPe co-founder and board member Shashvat Nakrani for a cash consideration of Rs 33 lakh.
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