BharatPe Fraud: Ashneer Grover, Wife Approach Delhi High Court Challenging Lookout Circular

BharatPe’s embattled cofounder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain on Thursday (February 1) approached the Delhi High Court to challenge the lookout circular (LOC) issued against them in connection to a probe in a cheating and forgery case.

As per Bar and Bench’s report, Justice Subramonium Prasad heard the matter and adjourned the case to May 8 after noting that the investigation in the case is at a nascent stage.

“It is too hot in the day for this court to intervene now. Wait for some time. The Delhi Police will take some time to investigate. We will have it in May. By that time, your friends may be back. They may also make amends,” Prasad said.

The court also noted that the Grovers’ plea challenging the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) FIR is also pending before the High Court.

Advocate Giriraj Subramanium appeared for the Grovers and argued that they had been cooperative with the investigation and there are multiple proceedings against them. 

Prasad, however, added that their plea to travel abroad for two days may be considered by the concerned authorities.  

This comes months after the duo were travelling to New York and was stopped at the Delhi International Airport amid a lookout circular issued against them.

Back then, an Inc42 source confirmed the development and said that the couple has been asked to return to their residence in Delhi and join the Economic Offences Wing’s (EOW) investigation.

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 2022.

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

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.