BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain have been summoned by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing for questioning in connection with the alleged fraud at the fintech giant.
The EOW has directed the couple to appear at its Mandir Marg office in New Delhi on November 21. The couple has been asked to join the probe that is being carried out into the alleged Rs 81 crore fraud at BharatPe, PTI reported citing sources.
The development came hours after Grover in a post on X claimed that he was stopped at the Delhi airport on Thursday when he and his wife were travelling to New York for vacation.
"I was going to US from 16-23 November. At immigration they said LoC laga hua hai sir - EOW se check kar ke batate hai (Look out notice has been issued and will update you 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 said.
EOW officials confirmed the summons and told PTI that the couple was stopped after a lookout circular was issued against them.
An FIR was filed against Grover, Madhuri Jain and their family members Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain in May by Economic Offences Wing in the alleged Rs 81-crore fraud case.
BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages of about Rs 81.30 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through passthrough vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri Jain and the destruction of evidence.
If convicted, Grover, Madhuri and others can face up to anything between 10 years to life imprisonment.
In December 2022, BharatPe had also filed a civil suit with the Delhi High Court against its former MD and co-founder Grover and his family, seeking up to Rs 88.67 crore in damages for alleged cheating and embezzlement of funds.
Also Read: 'I'm not a flight risk,' says Ashneer Grover on getting stopped at Delhi airport on basis of LoC