The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered the cancellation of the look-out circular (LOC) issued against BharatPe Managing Director Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, following the quashing of an FIR filed last year by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police.
Justice Sanjeev Narula issued the directive after being informed that a coordinate bench had quashed the FIR the previous day. The Grovers had requested the FIR be dismissed based on a recent settlement of disputes with the fintech company BharatPe.
“Although the copy of the order is not available as of now, this fact is undisputed by the counsel for the parties,” the court noted.
It further stated, “Given that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by Respondent No. 3, in the Court’s opinion, is no longer valid. Consequently, these petitions are disposed of with a direction to the Respondents to cancel the LOC against the Petitioners.”
The Bureau of Immigration issued the LOC at the request of the EOW. The Grovers and others had filed a plea seeking to quash the FIR, which had been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 406, 408, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120B, based on a complaint by BharatPe alleging misappropriation of funds and a loss of approximately Rs. 80 crore.
The accused named in the case included Madhuri Jain Grover, Ashneer Grover, Deepak Jagdishram Gupta, Shwetank Jain, and Suresh Jain. Counsel for the Grovers and other accused informed the coordinate bench that the dispute had been resolved through a settlement agreement on September 30.
BharatPe Fraud
BharatPe earlier announced that it had reached a settlement with former co-founder Ashneer Grover, who will no longer be associated with the company. “As part of the settlement, Grover will not be associated with BharatPe in any capacity nor be a part of the shareholding of the company,” the company said in an official statement.
As part of the deal, some of Grover’s shares will be transferred to the Resilient Growth Trust, while his family trust will manage the rest. Both BharatPe and Grover have agreed not to pursue any legal action as part of their settlement
The case pertains to BharatPe’s allegations against Grover of misappropriation of funds. BharatPe accused Grover and his family of causing losses of about Rs 81.3 crore. The allegations include improper payments to fake HR consultants, inflated costs from connected vendors, fake input tax credit transactions, illegal payments to travel agencies, forged invoices, and destruction of evidence..
