BharatPe founder to face investigation after go-ahead for company probe

Mumbai: BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover has lost an arbitration he filed to stop the investigation launched by the company into his activities, with with an emergency arbitrator holding that there was no ground to stop governance review at the fintech firm, sources told the media.

Grover is accused of having misused his position as Managing Director for fraudulent practises. His reputation took a further dip after a video went viral in which a person - allegedly Grover - can be heard abusing a Kotak Mahindra employee. Grover had filed his appeal with the singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) claiming the company's investigation against him was illegal.

In his plea, Grover had tried to argue that CEO Suhail Sameer and the company's general counsel Sumeet Singh, both of whom are in the council investigating governance processes were biased, and that all appointments for the internal audit and

Internal systems were "bad in law", an NDTV report said.

The emergency arbitrator (EA) has, however, rejected all the five grounds of his appeal and denied a single relief. Excerpts of the order passed on 25 February said that Grover had not established any valid right under the shareholder agreement (SHA) or general law for such relief.

Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain are accused of misusing their positions, with Grover having allegedly conducted financial fraud amounting to ₹50 crore. BharatPe has engaged a law firm and risk advisory consultant to conduct a more detailed investigation after allegations of financial irregularities.

In the viral video with the Kotak employee, Grover can be heard abusing him and his employers for not driving up enough capital for Nykaa's IPO. While he initially tried denying the authenticity of the video, it later emerged that he and his wife had sent a legal notice to Kotak for failure to provide IPO financing for the Nykaa IPO on October 31, 2021.

Madhuri Jain Grover allegedly used company funds for personal beauty treatments, buying electronic items and family trips to the US and Dubai.

Both have denied the allegations against them, with Grover accusing current CEO Suhail Sameer of being an "investor puppet" while Jain has said she was treated like "an object" in front of the "male chauvinist Board".

Grover has asserted that he will leave the company only if an investor buys out his 9.5% stake for ₹4,000 crore ($6 billion valuation for BharatPe).

BharatPe serves over 75 lakh merchants across 150 cities.