Settlement not on the cards with Ashneer Grover & family: BharatPe clarifies

BharatPe is in no mood to settle its case with Ashneer Grover and his family members including his wife Madhuri Jain Grover. In a statement, the fintech major clarified, “BharatPe initiated legal proceedings against Mr Grover and his family members by way of a civil suit at the Delhi High court and criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing in December 2022 for fraud, misappropriation of funds, criminal breach of trust, forgery, document fabrication, and embezzlement.”
 
The statement also said, “Media reports suggesting any settlement between BharatPe and Mr Grover or his family are completely baseless and untrue.”
 
Yesterday, reports surfaced suggesting that in a recent court hearing, when the Delhi High Court remarked that BharatPe and Ashneer Grover should explore settlement, the fintech major’s lawyer replied that it is on the cards. 
 
BharatPe replied to Business Today's queries, quashing the reports and said, “We have full faith in the country’s judicial and legal systems.”
 
BharatPe has accused the Grovers of creating false bills, enlisting fictitious vendors, and overcharging the company for recruitment. The fintech unicorn has sought over Rs 88 crore in damages from Grover, his wife, and his brother. 
 
The company had sought disclosure of assets owned by Grover and his family members, an interim injunction against defendants restraining them from making defamatory/derogatory statements concerning BharatPe, its directors, employees, and/or publicising the same, direction to Grovers for deleting/removing statements, social media posts, tweets, books, hashtags, videos and other media against the company and orders granting liberty to BharatPe to approach social media platforms, media organisations, publications, websites, blogs, etc. to seek deletion/removal of such material. 
 
Meanwhile, Grover has launched a new start-up called Third Unicorn. The new venture will be focusing on fantasy sports with a cricket-centric app called CrickPe. The CrickPe website stated that the platform is a fantasy sports app that will allow players to participate in public, private, or "mega contests" to earn cash prizes.

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