Rajnish Kumar rejects Ashneer's charges, says not stepping down from board

Amid the thickening Ashneer Grover-BharatPe saga, Chairman of the board of directors Rajnish Kumar said that Grover is only spreading lies and there is no substance in his allegations

Amid the thickening Ashneer Grover-BharatPe saga, Chairman of the board of directors Rajnish Kumar said on Wednesday that Grover is only spreading lies and there is no substance in his allegations of the probe being biased.

BharatPe co-founder and Managing Director Grover, in a latest letter sent to the company addressing Kumar and co-founder Bhavik Koladiya, alleged that the internal governance review was biased.

"Ashneer Grover's allegations of the probe being biased hold no merit. No one ever questioned my integrity ever in my entire career and everyone knows about my credibility.

"I am not quitting the BharatPe Board," Kumar, who has served as SBI Chairman, told IANS.

The company had earlier responded to Grover's letter, saying: "You have been indulging in spreading false and accusatory information about the senior management of the company to the family members and/or spouses of the said members of the senior management."

"Such abhorrent conduct on your part is completely unwarranted, and the company takes strong objection to the same. You are again called upon to cease and desist from spreading false and inflammatory content about the members of the senior management of the company. Your conduct in this regard is completely unbecoming of a managing director of the company," BharatPe had said.

The full-stack fintech platform BharatPe on Wednesday confirmed it has terminated the services of Madhuri Jain Grover, the wife of Grover, for alleged financial irregularities during her tenure.

The internal probe found misappropriation of funds during her time at the fintech platform. Madhuri Jain was head of controls at BharatPe.

"We can confirm that the services of Madhuri Jain Grover have been terminated in accordance with the terms of her employment agreement," the company said in a statement.

Sources earlier told IANS that Madhuri Jain's contract has been terminated and the reasons for this are "misappropriation of funds and authorisation of inflated bills during her tenure".

Later in the day, Madhuri Jain posted an audio clip on Twitter where Ashneer Grover and Koladiya were allegedly heard talking about a meeting between them, including Kumar, that ended with abusive words.

In the audio clip, Grover accused Koladiya of leaking probe information to the media, a charge Koladiya has earlier denied.

--IANS

na/vd