Delhi HC Asks Ashneer Grover, BharatPe To Stop Using Defamatory Language

The Delhi High Court on Monday (May 16) expressed its strong displeasure towards defamatory language being used by fintech unicorn BharatPe and its former MD and cofounder Ashneer Grover towards each other.

Hearing an application filed by BharatPe against Grover alleging that he has been making defamatory tweets against the company ever since the Delhi Police registered an FIR against him, a single-judge bench of Justice Prateek Jalan asked both the parties to stop using ‘defamatory’ and ‘unparliamentary’ language against each other.

“If you have both decided to enter the gutter, then please remain there,” Justice Jalan was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench.

The court also asked the counsels appearing for Grover and BharatPe to advise their clients to not use defamatory language. 

BharatPe had moved the application as part of its pending defamation suit against Grover.

The bench issued notices on BharatPe’s application and listed the case for further consideration on May 24 before the roster bench.

To recap, Grover is in hot waters as the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police registered an FIR against him, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, and other family members, including Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain, on May 10 based on a complaint filed by BharatPe. 

The fintech unicorn had filed a criminal complaint with the EOW against Grover and his family in December last year alleging a fraud of INR 81.28 Cr.

Besides the EOW case, BharatPe has also filed a civil suit in the Delhi High Court seeking INR 88.67 Cr in damages from Grover, Madhuri Jain Grover and their family members. In addition, it also filed an arbitration suit in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre to claw back restricted shares (1.4%) allotted to Grover.

Besides BharatPe, Grover is also facing lawsuits from BharatPe cofounders Bhavik Koladiya and Shashvat Nakrani. 

However, Grover seems unfazed by the legal suits. On Monday (May 15), he took a potshot at BharatPe. “India has 106 Unicorns – BharatPe is the only one which has switched OFF its comments section across Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram (all social media) for 15 months now,” the former MD of BharatPe said in a tweet.

On Sunday (May 14), he targeted BharatPe’s head of board Rajnish Kumar in a tweet.

Amidst all these controversies, Grover has also been busy promoting his new venture, CrickPe, which was launched earlier this year.

Last month, he claimed that the fantasy cricket app had recorded 10 Lakh downloads ahead of the IPL season, within a month of its launch.

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