BharatPe crisis gets ugly as Ashneer Grover, Madhuri Jain escalate battle

Madhuri Jain Grover, former head of controls at BharatPe, has raised a barrage of questions over the board’s handling of the whole situation and the role of its current management while her husband and the fintech’s Managing Director Ashneer Grover has accused the board and co-founder Bhavik Koladiya  of improper conduct.

Shortly after the company terminated her services, Jain sent out a series of tweets alleging the board and management of executing a witch hunt against the husband-wife duo.

“And these are the people Suhail Sameer (CEO, BharatPe) sitting on Governance Review and passing judgement on me! Great work by Sequoia and Harshjit Sethi (MD at Sequoia Capital India) and Chairman Rajnish Kumar for a perfectly executed witch hunt with your accomplices Sumeet Singh (General Counsel and Head- Corporate Strategy, BharatPe) and Bhavik Koladiya (Co-founder and Group Head of Product & Technology at BharatPe),” she tweeted, tagging all of them.

Jain said law firms Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Alvarez & Marsel (A&M) did not present any documents regarding the governance review when they called her in for investigation and failed to offer an explanation about the leaked findings report.

A preliminary report by A&M, leaked in early February, found inconsistencies with recruitment and fake invoices which involved Jain, her brother Shwetank Jain and brother-in-law Deepak Jagdishram Gupta. The investigation found five instances of BharatPe recruiting employees through various consultants who are paid the recruitment fees, although the employees denied being hired through the consultants mentioned in the invoice. As per the report, in three such above cases, Jain had directly received invoices from vendors and forwarded them to the account departments to make payments. Payments were also made to non-existent vendors.  

“Mr Rajnish Kumar - what’s the governance review process under your Chairmanship where everything is leaked? Board minutes, appointments of 3rd parties, A&M report, termination letters, arbitrations? I never heard of so many leaks in your whole tenure at SBI. What’s broken?,” she wrote on Twitter.

She also alleged that the whole saga is a conspiracy. Uploading a screen grab of communication between Sameer and Grover, Jain asked why Meyer Malka (aka Micky), managing partner at Ribbit Capital and Sequoia’s Sethi sought her resignation on the day when Grover went on voluntary leave. She called the ongoing governance review “clearly just an eyewash and means to an end.” As per the screenshot, Sameer says Micky and Sethi asked for Jain’s resignation to which Grover says the Board asked her not to do so.

Meanwhile, in a scathing letter shot to the board of the company, Grover accused chairman Kumar of bias and prejudice, MoneyControl reported.  

Grover said he received a call from Koladiya, which he alleges was made from the Kumar's home, asking him for a meeting to discuss some issues. He said Koladiya was abusive and used profanity. Grover has alleged that Rajnish Kumar was also with him when the call came. He also termed Koladiya as an 'independent contractor'.

“I would further like to point that the involvement of Mr Rajnish Kumar in the instant episode has confirmed my apprehensions that the entire façade of the alleged Governance Review is riddled with premeditation, bias and prejudice. Mr Kumar’s involvement also completely erodes any semblance of non-partisan supervision by him as has been envisaged qua his role in the Review Committee”, Grover said in the letter.

"Is Bhavik Koladiya associated with BharatPe or not ? Was he at Rajnish house along with Suhail Sameer and Shashvat to discuss business or something else? Why is Chairman engaging Bhavik Koladiya at his home despite knowing his criminal track record? What’s cooking here?” Jain asked, uploading an audio clip of the call on Twitter.

“What was he doing at Rajnish’s house? What strategy / conspiracy were they discussing? Why did he threaten Ashneer on being asked agenda and abuse?”

The new developments take the power struggle to a new level even as Grover has filed an emergency plea before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and has sought indemnity for future liabilities.

Queries sent to BharatPe, Ashneer Grover, Rajnish Kumar, A&M, and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas did not elicit an immediate response. Bhavik Koladiya could not be contacted immediately.