Madhuri Jain is at the center of the allegations as she was the Joint Director-HR at BharatPe.
BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover's wife, Madhuri Jain, was today questioned by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing in an alleged Rs 81-crore fraud at the fintech startup. The cops had also summoned Ashneer Grover, but he did not appear for questioning today.
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.
The accused allegedly also used backdated invoices to move funds from BharatPe's accounts for payment of commissions for recruitment work, a status report filed by the EOW in the Delhi High Court stated.
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.
Last week, the couple were stopped from boarding an international flight departing Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. Immigration officials blocked Mr Grover's departure, and that of his wife, to New York on the basis of a lookout circular, or LoC, issued by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing.
In December 2022, BharatPe also filed a civil suit in the Delhi High Court against Mr Grover and his family, seeking up to Rs 88.67 crore in damages for alleged cheating and embezzlement of funds.