Delhi High Court refuses to stay Delhi Police probe against Ashneer Grover, Madhuri Grover

The Delhi High Court Thursday refused to stay the investigation against Ashneer Grover and Madhuri Jain Grover in relation to the first information report (FIR) registered by Delhi Police based on a complaint by fintech firm BharatPe..Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said that at this stage, no case is made out for staying the investigation. The Court further said that as far as their prayer for issuance of advance notice by the police is concerned, the duo can adopt other remedies available under the law.“This court is of the view that no case is made out, at this stage, for staying the investigation and so far as prayer about advance notice is concerned, petitioner is at liberty to adopt other remedies available to them in accordance with law,” the Court ordered.The Court, however, issued notice to the Delhi Police and BharatPe on the plea by Grovers for quashing the FIR as well as the plea for interim relief (of stay). .While Ashneer Grover is the former Managing Director of BharatPe, Madhuri Grover was the company's head of operations. They left the company in early 2022. In December 2022, BharatPe lodged a complaint against the couple and in May this year, the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing registered an FIR against them.BharatPe has alleged a fraud of nearly ₹81 crores. Police have invoked provisions of Indian Penal Code related to cheating, criminal breach of trust as well as forgery and criminal conspiracy in its FIR..Grovers approached the High Court for quashing of the FIR. In the interim, they sought a stay on the investigation. In the alternative, it was prayed that there should be issuance of advance notice by the police in case they wanted custody of the duo.Advocate Giriraj Subramanium appeared for the Grovers and argued that the allegations in the FIR were about certain transactions relating to GST and other matters pertaining to the management of the company which the petitioners were entitled to conduct in their capacity as its directors. He said that the couple had the requisite authority for the same from company's the board of directors. Subramanium submitted that the Grovers were instrumental in taking the fintech firm to its current valuation of nearly ₹20,000 crores and the allegations levelled against them do not disclose any criminality.More specifically, the annual report of the company for the year 2021-2022 does not reflect any fraud, Subramanium argued. .Senior Advocates Vikas Pahwa and Dayan Krishnan appeared for BharatPe and opposed the plea.They submitted that the matter concerns complex financial transactions which amounted to defalcation of the funds of the company.The Senior Counsel argued that essence of the allegations against Grovers was that they were involved in bogus transactions where the vendors did not even exist and forged documents for recruitment..Grovers and BharatPe have been involved in the legal tussle ever since the former were ousted from the company. In December 2022, one of the BharatPe co-founders had filed a complaint alleging fraud of ₹81 crore to the company. Grover left the firm in March 2022 while his wife is alleged to have been terminated in February the same year.BharatPe has also filed a defamation suit against Grovers in the Delhi High Court. During the previous hearing of the suit, Grover had told the Court that he has deleted all the alleged defamatory content against BharatPe from his social media handles.