In a significant development, the Delhi High Court has ordered the cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover. The court’s decision comes after another bench of the high court quashed the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery.
Justice Sanjeev Narula, presiding over the case, acknowledged that the FIR had been quashed and stated, “Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties. In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive.”
The Bureau of Immigration had issued the lookout circular at the behest of Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in response to the investigation against the Grovers related to the cheating and forgery FIR. The Grovers had sought the quashing of the FIRs, citing a recent settlement of disputes with the fintech company BharatPe.
The Grovers’ encounter with the LOC occurred on November 16, 2023, when they were detained at Delhi’s international airport while preparing to travel to the US. They were informed that the LOC had been operational since November 6, 2023.
The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police had initiated an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code. These sections covered offenses like criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty, forgery, and using forged documents as genuine. The FIR stemmed from a complaint filed by BharatPe, alleging an ₹ 81 crore fraud.
BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family had orchestrated damages amounting to almost ₹ 81.3 crore through various fraudulent activities. These included illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through 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, and destruction of evidence.
It’s worth noting that Ashneer Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of BharatPe in March 2022. Madhuri, who previously held the position of head of controls at BharatPe, was dismissed in 2022 following a forensic audit that uncovered several irregularities.
The cancellation of the lookout circular marks a significant development in the ongoing legal saga involving Ashneer Grover and BharatPe. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the future of the company and the Grovers’ involvement.
