Delhi High Court (Delhi HC) has denied staying the investigation against Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover regarding the complaint of misappropriating funds and damaging BharatPe with a loss of Rs 80 crore.

According to a report by Moneycontrol, the Delhi HC has pointed out that no case has been made at present to put a stay on the investigation. 

The Economic Offences Wing (EoW) registered an FIR against Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover and two other family members under eight sections of serious cognizable criminal offences, which include  IPC 409, IPC 420, IPC 467 and 120B. If convicted, then Grover and his wife may face life imprisonment of 10 years. 

“The complaint was received at EOW and enquiry has been conducted into the allegations levelled against alleged persons. From the contents of the complaint and enquiry conducted so far, prima-facie offences punishable under Sections 406/408/409/420/467/468/471/120B IPC (Indian penal code) are made out," a person aware of the development, told Mint at that time. 

Last December, BharatPe filed a complaint against Ashneer Grover and his family members with allegations of fraud, breaching trust, cheating, forgery and trust. Additionally, it also filed a lawsuit against Grover seeking Rs 88.67 crore. Prior to that, he faced four more lawsuits. Shashwat Nakrani, the former co-founder also sued him for unpaid shares. 

Responding to this, Grover took a dig at his previous company. In a LinkedIn post, he said that BharatPe has no business left and it will meet a similar fate to SVB. 

“BharatPe will shut down / sold in fire sale overnight like SVB. People who have been asking me whether they should keep money in the 12% Club - don’t take that risk anymore. I know they’ve sold their loan book worth Rs100s of crore to ARCs for pennies - booking huge losses. The only business anyone should do with BharatPe is take a loan from them,” he wrote.