BharatPe Fraud: Ashneer Grover, wife Madhuri stopped at Delhi airport
New Delhi: BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain were stopped at the Delhi international airport following a look out circular issued against them in the alleged fraud at the fintech firm, sources said.
The couple were to travel to New York late on Thursday for vacation when they were stopped at the airport on the basis of a look out circular issued by the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi police.
EoW is investigating complaints of payments being made at BharatPe to fake human resource consultancies allegedly operated by Grover and family. They have also been accused of backdating invoices to use funds.
Grover in a post on X confirmed being stopped at the airport.
He however said he had not received any communication or summons from EoW since the FIR was filed in May.
''I had not received any communication or summons from EOW since FIR in May till 8 AM today 17 morning (7 hours after returning from airport),'' he said. ''I was going to US from 16-23 November.'' After being stopped at the airport, he was asked to return home.
''At immigration they said LoC laga hua hai sir - EOW se check kar ke batate hai (At the immigration, they said LoC has been issued and they need to check with EoW),'' he said. ''I found it strange as have travelled 4 times internationally since FIR filed in May - never been a problem and I had not even been summoned once.'' The flight left in the meantime and EoW asked immigration to allow the duo to return home, he said.
''Today morning EOW summon was home delivered - will cooperate as always,'' he added.
While sources said he had protested when the couple were stopped at the airport, Grover said there was ''no drama.'' ''LOC hatane ka process hai (there is a process to get LOC revoked) - I am not a flight risk - easy to prove,'' he added.
The EoW in May filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri and family members Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint by fintech unicorn BhartPe.
BharatPe in the complaint alleged that Grover and his family caused damages of about Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through passthrough vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri and destruction of evidence.
If convicted, Grover, Madhuri and others can face up to anything between 10 years to life imprisonment.
In December 2022, BharatPe had also filed a civil suit with the Delhi High Court against its former MD and co-founder Grover and his family, seeking up to Rs 88.67 crore in damages for alleged cheating and embezzlement of funds.
The suit, running into 2,800 pages, alleged that Grover, Madhuri and other family members created fake bills, enlisted fictitious vendors to provide services to the company and overcharged the company for recruitment.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe and was fired earlier in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities. Subsequently, Ashneer Grover resigned as CEO in March 2022.
BharatPe, last year, hit the headlines when Grover 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 Madhuri.
Thereafter, BharatPe appointed Alvarez and Marsal, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and PwC to conduct a corporate governance review and determine whether Grover had committed willful misconduct.
This led to the ouster of Madhuri and Grover from the company and its board in March.
On May 10, 2022, BharatPe said that after a detailed review, the company had decided to take steps against employees involved in misconduct and claw back Grover’s restricted shares.
Grover has so far remained defiant and attacked anyone reporting on the investigation by EoW.
''Don’t pronounce me dead till 13 days after you’ve burned me at the pyre !,'' he said in the post on X on Friday.
Hello ! Hello !
— Ashneer Grover (@Ashneer_Grover) November 17, 2023
Kya chal raha hai India mein ? Filhaal to Ashneer stopped at airport chal raha hai janab.
So facts:
1. I had not received any communication or summon from EOW since FIR in May till 8 AM today 17 morning (7 hours after returning from airport).
2. I was going to… pic.twitter.com/I0OHOXJd6F
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
