BharatPe files case against Ashneer Grover for sharing confidential funding details

BharatPe has reportedly filed a fresh case against former MD and Co-founder Ashneer Grover after he shared details of BharatPe's Series E fundraise on social media site X (formerly Twitter).

The fintech's parent company, Resilient Innovations, has sought an injunction against Ashneer Grover in the Delhi High Court for sharing confidential information about the company, as reported by The Economic Times.

BharatPe's legal representatives contend that Grover breached his employment agreement by disclosing confidential company information. Grover's attorney offered an apology for the act of tweeting confidential information, which the Court accepted. The attorney also mentioned that Grover needed the information to defend himself in ongoing legal proceedings.

In the now-deleted post, Grover had reportedly shared details regarding equity allocation and secondary components pertaining to BharatPe's $370 million Series E funding round led by Tiger Global that it had raised in 2021. Ashneer tweeted it as a rebuke after he and his wife Madhuri Jain were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi due to a look-out circular by Delhi Police's Economic Offence Wing (EOW).

They were on their way to New York but were stopped for an investigation into an FIR filed in May 2023, alleging illicit payments to HR consultancies and invoice tampering by BharatPe, which Grover has refuted.

Sindhu Pillai, Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW), earlier stated the couple were detained temporarily for questioning and had not been arrested. Grover had expressed surprise, noting that they had been travelling internationally without issues or summons since the FIR was lodged in May.

After a five-month investigation, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, Jain, and other family members.

BharatPe alleged Grover and his family caused damages owing to embezzlement totalling Rs 81.3 crore, including illegitimate payments to bogus HR consultants, inflated payments through passthrough vendors, and illegal payments to travel agencies. The FIR outlined a modus operandi involving cancelling orders with original vendors and replacing them at inflated rates with purported vendors connected to the accused, causing losses to the company between 2018-2021.