BharatPe Fraud Case: Delhi Court Sends Ashneer Grover’s Kin To Five-Day Judicial Custody

In the latest development in the BharatPe fraud case, a Delhi court has reportedly sent former managing director Ashneer Grover’s brother-in-law, Deepak Gupta, to judicial custody for five days. 

Gupta, who was the former administration and procurement head at BharatPe, was produced before the Saket Court on Wednesday (September 25) after five days of police custody, ANI reported. 

This comes days after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police arrested Gupta for allegedly misappropriating funds from BharatPe. He was held at the Mandir Marg Police Station after a court in Delhi granted 5 days custody of Gupta to police to further investigate his involvement in the case.

His arrest came a month after the EOW arrested vendor Amit Kumar Bansal in connection with the alleged INR 82 Cr fraud at BharatPe. Gupta is said to have instructed vendor Bansal, who too was arrested for his direct association with a number of vendors at the centre of the alleged fraud. 

The arrests came after months of probe and questioning of more than 50 witnesses by law enforcement authorities.

At the heart of the matter is the alleged embezzlement of funds worth INR 82 Cr at BharatPe. In December 2022, the fintech major filed a criminal complaint against its former managing director and cofounder Ashneer Grover, his wife and head of operations Madhuri Jain Grover, Shwetank Jain (Madhuri’s brother), Suresh Jain (Ashneer’s father-in-law), and Gupta. 

The complaint alleged that the accused embezzled funds from BharatPe and allegedly made payments to fake HR consultancies.

Earlier this month, the EOW also submitted a detailed status report on the case and said that an internal investigation by BharatPe revealed multiple illegalities and irregularities. 

The report added that the arrested accused Amit Bansal disclosed that he and his late brother Ravi Bansal established seven firms under the instructions of Madhuri Jain and Deepak Gupta and facilitated transactions worth crores.

Subsequently, the EOW issued a look out circular against the husband-wife duo. This was followed by a court barring the couple from leaving the country without permission. However, in May this year, the Delhi HC granted permission to the couple to travel abroad to the US and asked them to furnish an INR 80 Cr security deposit.

Besides, Ashneer Grover is also battling a slew of legal cases. In November last year, BharatPe filed another civil suit before the Delhi High Court and sought INR 88.67 Cr in damages from Ashneer and Madhuri.

Grover is also grappling with legal cases over shares held by him for BharatPe founder Shashvat Nakrani and cofounder Bhavik Koladiya. Both are subject matters of two separate cases currently being heard by the Delhi HC.