Ashneer Grover accuses BharatPe of "leaking confidential information"
BharatPe's Grover wrote a letter attacking Rajnish Kumar and Bhavik Koladiya. The board and Kumar rubbished his claims, while Kumar also offered to resign.
In the latest instalment of a saga that has become increasingly bitter, Ashneer Grover sent a letter to the board accusing Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the board, and Bhavik Koladiya, co-founder of the company, of improper conduct.
First reported by MoneyControl, BharatPe co-founder Grover claims that he received a call from Koladiya asking him to fly to Gurugram "to discuss some issues." He claims that the call was made from Kumar's home in Gurugram and that Koladiya mentioned that the two of them wanted to talk to Grover.
When Grover pushed for more details on the issues to be discussed, Koladiya is alleged to have become abusive and started using foul language. "Upon such instigation, I told Mr Koladiya that if he wanted to discuss things in such fashion then I was not interested in talking to him," Grover said in the letter.
In an interesting twist, Grover also describes co-founder Koladiya as an "independent contractor" for the IT team in his letter. This led to a further accusation that the BharatPe board has been leaking details about the ongoing investigation and arbitration to third parties.
"The manner in which Mr Koladiya, who is neither a Member of the Board nor an employee of the Company, is being involved by Mr Rajnish Kumar in the communications with me also fortifies my concerns that the Company has been willfully leaking confidential information as regards the present dispute to third parties," wrote Grover.
“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," wrote Grover in the mail in which he sent the letter to the board.
In response to the letter, Kumar called the claims baseless, but also offered to tender his resignation to the board if required.
The board itself responded to the allegations by denying that they had anything to do with it, and that Grover's "attempts at casting aspersions on the governance review" were false. Additionally, they took pains to be clear that the alleged phone call has no connection to the review.
"For the sake of clarity, it is reiterated that the purported audio clip shared by you does not relate to any official communication of the company with you, and all allegations to the contrary are denied," said their letter.
Edited by Anju Narayanan