Ashneer Grover, former managing director of BharatPe and Shark at Shark Tank India, has been stopped at Delhi airport on Thursday evening. Ashneer was travelling to New York along with his wife Madhuri Jain. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police stopped Ashneer and his wife at terminal 3 of Delhi's IGI airport citing a Lookout Circular (LoC) issued earlier.
A LoC was issued earlier this week by EOW amid the ongoing investigation against the couple for alleged fraud at BharatPe, Mint reported quoting an official.
The former Shark Tank India judge issued a clarification on X (formerly Twitter) along with a smiling photo. He began his tweet by taking a jibe at his situation at the Delhi airport and wrote, ''Kya chal raha hai India mein ? Filhaal to Ashneer stopped at airport chal raha hai janab.''
He also mentioned 'facts' about the case due to which he was stopped from travelling abroad. He wrote,
''1. I had not received any communication or summon from EOW since FIR in May till 8 AM today 17 morning (7 hours after returning from airport).
2. I was going to US from 16-23 November
3. At immigration they said LoC laga hua hai sir - EOW se check kar ke batate hai
4. I found it strange as have travelled 4 times internationally since FIR filed in May - never been a problem and I had not even been summoned once
5. Flight left in meantime anyways - EOW folks directed Immigration to let us out so that we can return home
6. Today morning EOW summon was home delivered - will cooperate as always.''
Sindhu Pillai, EOW's joint commissioner of police, said, ''They were detained before security check and asked to return to their Delhi residence and join the probe at the EOW office at Mandir Marg next week.''
Sindhu also informed that the LoC was issued only to detain the two from travelling abroad and not for arresting.
How it all started?
Recently, the Delhi Police submitted a status report in the High Court wherein they alleged financial irregularities in BharatPe's operations by co-founder Ashneer Grover and his family members and implication in questionable practices, including the use of backdated invoices to channel funds.
Eight HR consulting firms associated with Grover's family, such as True Work Co, Team Source, and Impulse Marketing, filed bills with closed bank accounts, indicating the potential fabrication of invoices, as per the report.
The reports stated that these seemingly distinct entities shared the same registered address, sparking concerns about their legitimacy and independence, possibly hinting at a conflict of interest.
