Ashneer Grover Drops Oppression & Mismanagement Plea Against BharatPe

Ashneer Grover, the co-founder and former managing director of Indian Fintech company BharatPe, has withdrawn his petition against the board from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Grover had alleged oppressive conduct and mismanagement by the board of BharatPe.

The withdrawal of the plea from the NCLT's Delhi bench came after the former managing director settled with the company on September 30, 2024.

A copy of the settlement agreement was produced before the NCLT by the counsel appearing for Grover, who had applied for withdrawal of the petition.

"… during the pendency of the said petition, parties have arrived with settlement and also executed the settlement agreement dated September 30, 2024, a copy of which is placed on record and in view of the settlement applicant (who is petitioner in the main company petition) has sought liberty to withdraw the company petition," the NCLT order dated October 14, 2024, noted.

The BharatPe-Grover dispute

The fintech company accused Grover and his family of causing losses of about Rs 81.3 crore to the firm through illegitimate payments to fake human-resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input-tax credit, payment of penalty to Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities, and illegal payments to travel agencies.

The company also charged that Ashneer Grover's brother-in-law, Shwetank Jain forged invoices and destroyed evidence. 

Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) filed an FIR against BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his family in May 2023. Last month, the EOW arrested Jain. 

What happened after that?

Ashneer Grover came to a mutual agreement with BharatPe after the arrest of Shwetank Jain. It was agreed that Grover would cease to be a shareholder in the company.

As part of the settlement, a portion of Grover's shares were decided to be transferred to the Resilient Growth Trust for the benefit of the company, while the remaining shares will be managed by his family trust.

Both parties even agreed not to pursue any further legal actions regarding the dispute.

However, in his petition, Grover pursued a reinstatement as Managing Director of the company by altering the board of the Resilient Innovations Pvt Ltd. This was declared "illegal” by BharatPe.

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