The Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing has summoned
BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain for questioning in
connection with an alleged ₹ 81-crore fraud at the fintech unicorn, police
sources said on Friday.
The couple has been asked to appear at the Economic
Offences Wing’s Mandir Marg office on November 21 to join the probe being
carried out on a complaint by BharatPe, the sources said.
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.
EOW officials confirmed the summons and told PTI that
the couple was stopped after a lookout circular was issued against them.
The EOW filed an FIR against Grover, Madhuri Jain and
their family members Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain and Shwetank Jain in May in the
alleged ₹ 81-crore fraud case.
BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused
damages of about ₹ 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.
EOW sources said the officials filed a status report
in court on November 7. If convicted, the accused face between 10 years to life
in prison.
In December 2022, BharatPe had also filed a civil suit
in Delhi High Court against Grover and his family, seeking up to ₹ 88.67 crore
in damages for alleged cheating and embezzlement of funds.
PTI
