Ashneer Grover Apologises, Fined Rs 2 Lakh For Posts On BharatPe: Report

BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover has apologised and was fined Rs 2 lakh by the Delhi High Court for defamatory social media posts about the company, despite giving assurances that he would not do so, Bar and Benchreported.

In January, the Delhi High Court had advised BharatPe and its estranged co-founder to be courteous to each other even after their fallout. The court urged Mr Grover to refrain from making allegedly defamatory statements and asked the counsel for the parties to accordingly "advise" their respective clients.

"Social media has actually brought us down to this level. What are we doing here? Basically, they should be courteous to each other... You have fallen out, fight your litigation," the court remarked.

Mr Grover's wife, Madhuri Jain, was last week questioned by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing in an alleged Rs 81-crore fraud at the fintech startup. Mr Grover was also summoned but he did not appear for questioning.

The complaint was filed in May 2023 after BharatPe alleged that Mr Grover and his family caused damages of Rs 81.3 crore through illegal payments.

The company claimed they made fake payments to human resource consultants, forged invoices, made illegal payments to travel invoices, and also added non-existing transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities.

Madhuri Jain is at the center of the allegations as she was the Joint Director-HR at BharatPe. She was fired last year. Mr Grover, who shot to fame as one of the 'sharks' on Shark Tank India, resigned as CEO soon after.

If convicted, the accused faces between 10 years to life in prison.