NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: Ashneer Grover, founder and former managing director of fintech firm BharatPe, and wife Madhuri Jain were stopped from boarding a New York-bound flight at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGAI) in Delhi on Thursday evening.
According to officials, the couple was stopped by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi police. They added that a lookout circular (LoC) was issued by the EOW earlier this week against the two for alleged fraud at BharatPe.
Sindhu Pillai, joint commissioner of police (EOW), said the couple was detained before the security check and asked to return to their Delhi residence and join the probe at the EOW office at Mandir Marg next week. Pillai added that the LoC was only to detain the couple from travelling abroad and that they have not been arrested yet. Grover confirmed in a post on X that he was stopped at the airport.
“I was going to the US from 16-23 November. At immigration they said LoC laga hua hai sir - EOW se check kar ke batate hai (we will update after checking with EOW). 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. Flight left in meantime anyways - EOW folks directed Immigration to let us out so that we can return home,” he wrote on X.
He added that on Friday morning he received summons from the agency and was “home delivered.” “Will cooperate as always,” he said. In May this year, EOW had registered an FIR against Grover, wife and family members under eight sections for allegedly defrauding fintech firm BharatPe of `81.28 crore. On Wednesday, a preliminary report of the investigation alleged Grover and wife diverted `7.6 crore from BharatPe through eight bogus HR consultants and that invoices from five companies that were providing recruitment services were backdated.
Grover also slammed former SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar on X and said, “Building a big business from scratch is the hardest thing to do. Inheriting a business and keeping it running at same level is still hard. Delivering nothing and creating a deflection to hide behind is the easiest.” Last year, in a tweet, Grover called Kumar’s hiring a mistake. Kumar was appointed Chairman of BharatPe board in October 2021. “Not only because of what transpired – but because I overlooked data. Under Rajnish as CMD, SBI stock tanked 25% in 3 years. That’s $8 billion of value destruction. After he left, it went to Rs 570 (up 200%). Data is never dogla (hypocritical)!,” Grover had said.