Ashneer Grover's family member arrested in BharatPe fund siphoning case: Report

Deepak Gupta, Ashneer Grover's family member and former Head of Procurement at BharatPe's parent company was arrested for the ₹81.3 crore BharatPe case

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police arrested Deepak Gupta, a family member of BharatPe co-founder and former MD Ashneer Grover, over alleged misappropriation of company funds, CNBC-TV18 reported.

BharatPe accused Ashneer Grover and his family members of allegedly siphoning funds using various fraudulent schemes between 2019 and 2021.

Deepak Gupta, who is married to the sister of Madhuri Grover (Ashneer Grover's wife) was taken into custody on the evening of September 19, 2024. He was the former Head of Procurement at BharatPe's parent company Resilient Innovation.

“Deepak Gupta is currently being kept at Mandir Marg Police station,” a Moneycontrol report quoted an unnamed source aware of the developments as saying. “He will be produced infront of CJM, Saket Court where Police will seek Police remand of the accused.”

Why was Deepak Gupta arrested?

The arrest came as part of a probe into an alleged ₹81 crore fraud at BharatPe, with the fintech unicorn filing a criminal complaint in December 2022 against Ashneer Grover, wife Madhuri Jain Grover, her brother Shwetank Jain, her father Suresh Jain, as well as Deepak Gupta.

The investigation into the company's financial irregularities began after Ashneer Grover's controversial 2022 exit from the company, with Madhuri Grover who used to be the Head of Controls at BharatPe, also being fired.

The EOW had also formally registered an FIR in May 2023, naming the five individuals as accused.

What was BharatPe's complaint about?

BharatPe accused Ashneer Grover and his family members of allegedly siphoning funds using various fraudulent schemes between 2019 and 2021.

Their alleged methods included making illegitimate payments to bogus HR consultants, inflating payments to vendors known to them, fabricating transactions for input-tax credit, as well as making illegal payments to travel agencies, according to the report.

The arrest of Deepak Gupta comes after EOW arrested Amit Kumar Bansal last month for being one of the members of the non-existing firms that received payments of ₹72 crore from the then directors of BharatPe between 2019 and 2021, according to the report.