BharatPe fraud case update: Ashneer Grover's brother-in-law arrested!

Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested Deepak Gupta, the brother-in-law of former BharatPe managing director and co-founder Ashneer Grover in the alleged misappropriation of funds case filed by the fintech.

According to sources, Gupta was arrested on the night of September 19 and is being held at the Mandir Marg police station and will be produced in court today. 

The allegation & the arrest

Gupta has been accused of instructing vendor Amit Kumar Bansal, who was arrested recently for association with several vendors for the alleged embezzlement of funds from BharatPe.

"Deepak Gupta is currently being kept at Mandir Marg Police station. He will be produced in front of CJM, Saket Court where Police will seek Police remand of the accused," informed a person close to the developments. [Source: Moneycontrol]

The Indian fintech company, BharatPe had filed a criminal complaint in December 2022 against 5 accused individuals - Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Grover, Shwetank Jain (brother of Madhuri), Suresh Jain (father-in-law of Ashneer) and Deepak Gupta (brother-in-law of Ashneer and Madhuri) in the Rs 81-crore fraud case. Incidentally, Madhuri Grover, wife of Ashneer Grover, was fired from her position as the Head of Controls at BharatPe. 

The BharatPe fraud case - What exactly happened? 

The EOW filed an FIR against BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his family in May 2023. Last month, the EOW made its first arrest in the case.

Amit Kumar Bansal was seized on the allegation of being one of the members of the non-existing firms that had accepted payments of Rs 72 crore from the then directors of BharatPe between the periods of 2019 and 2021.

The fintech company has 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 has also charged that Shwetank Jain forged invoices and destroyed evidence. The investigation is going on.

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