Ashneer Grover, Madhuri Jain Stopped At Delhi Airport Amid EOW Investigation

Former BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain were stopped at the Delhi International Airport amid ongoing investigations against the two for alleged fraud at BharatPe, as per a report.

Grover and Jain were travelling to New York and were stopped amid a look-out circular (LoC) against them, an ET report said.

According to an Inc42 source, who also confirmed the development, the couple has been asked to return to their residence in Delhi and join the Economic Offences Wing’s (EOW) investigation next week.

It must be noted that the couple also hold a UAE Golden Visa. The Golden Permit is a special multi-year visa for the Emirates that allows holders to revisit the country any number of times. Several Indian entrepreneurs have received UAE’s Golden Permits in recent years.

The couple is currently under a probe by EOW for alleged fake bank transfers to the tune of INR 56 Cr between 2019 and 2022. The total amount involved in these transactions has been pegged at somewhere around INR 81 Cr.

The BharatPe saga has been ongoing for more than a year now. The fintech unicorn had filed a criminal complaint with the Delhi Police’s EOW against Grover and his family in December last year.

Amid ongoing public mud-slinging, EOW registered the first information report (FIR) against the Grovers in May this year.

The FIR named the couple and a few others under eight sections of cognizable criminal offences which included Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant, or agent), Section 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), Section 420 (cheating and dishonesty inducing delivery of property), among others.

As per BharatPe’s FIR, the couple paid commissions to ‘bogus HR consultants’ linked to Madhuri’s family members, including her father Suresh Jain and brother Shwetank Jain.

The EOW’s investigation into the fintech major’s complaint has two parts – first, around INR 7.6 Cr of payments to fake HR consultancies and second, INR 1.66 Cr as penalty to GST authorities along with alleged embezzlement of INR 71.76 Cr via fictitious transactions.

After the report emerged on Friday (November 17) that Grover and his wife were stopped at the airport, the former took to X saying that he has not received “any communication or summon” from EOW since the FIR was registered in May till 8 AM today, even seven hours after returning from the airport.

However, he also stated that the EOW summon was sent to him earlier today.

“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,” he said.

Since the beginning of the allegations of multiple frauds against him, Grover has continued to defend himself. 

Meanwhile, he also launched his latest venture Third Unicorn earlier this year and ventured into the gaming sector with fantasy cricket platform CrickPe.