EOW Arrests Vendor Linked To Alleged BharatPe Fraud

The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has made an arrest in its investigation of the alleged INR 82 Cr fraud at fintech unicorn BharatPe. The EOW has taken custody of Amit Kumar Bansal, who is said to be associated with a number of vendors at the centre of the alleged embezzlement of funds from the company. 

The EOW has named Madhuri Jain Grover as the key accused in the case along with her husband and former MD of BharatPe Ashneer Grover. Besides this, a number of family members and relatives have been named as accused. 

According to court documents, a copy of which has been seen by Inc42, Bansal was arrested and produced before a court on August 6, 2024, which sent him to a six-day police custody. 

Madhuri and Ashneer are alleged to have made payments to 33 non-existing vendors, who communicated using the email address ‘[email protected]’. Bansal was identified as the owner of this email account by the EOW and taken into custody. 

The accused is under police remand at the EOW office in New Delhi’s Mandir Marg and will be produced to the court on Monday, August 12, 2024.

BharatPe’s complaint against ousted cofounder Grover, wife Madhuri and family members, including Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain, and Shwetank Jain was registered by the EOW in May 2023.

The case involved Madhuri’s alleged approval of payments amounting to INR 72 Cr to 30 third-party vendors that did not provide any real services or goods to the company. The EOW also discovered a host of unexplained payments made to allegedly fake HR consultancies by Ashneer and Madhuri during their course of employment at the company. 

While Ashneer was a cofounder at BharatPe, Madhuri was the head of controls, a role which encompassed overseeing the company’s finances and regulatory compliance.

Besides the EOW case, BharatPe filed a civil suit with the Delhi High Court in November last year seeking INR 88.67 Cr in damages from Ashneer and Madhuri. 

Ashneer is also stuck in litigation 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.