Ashneer Grover case: Kotak Mahindra Bank pursuing appropriate legal action

Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank on Sunday said it is pursuing appropriate legal action in Ashneer Grover case. Grover is co-founder and managing director (MD) of Bharat Pe, who had sent a legal notice to the bank on October 30, 2021, for allegedly failing to provide initial public offering (IPO) financing in the IPO of FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, or Nykaa, and to allocate its shares in the HNI/NII category.

The bank in a statement said, “The (legal) notice was received by us and was replied to appropriately at the time, including placing on record our objections to inappropriate language used by Mr. Grover. Appropriate legal action is being pursued. We would like to confirm that there is no breach or violation by the Kotak Group in any manner whatsoever”.

The legal notice sent by Grover and the response of the private lender assumes significance after an audio recording was shared on social media platform Twitter in which Grover was allegedly heard using derogatory language against an empl­oyee of the bank.

Grover later claimed that the audio clip was fake. In the legal notice sent to the bank, Grover’s law firm had said, “…to the shock and surprise of our clients, on 28 October 2021, after having repeatedly assured our clients that the shares of FSN would be allo­tted to them, Kotak informed our clients that it would not be able to provide IPO financing for the Nykaa IPO”.  

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