'Kya Chal Raha Hai India Mein?' Ashneer Grover, Wife Madhuri Jain Stopped At Delhi Airport

The couple were scheduled to travel to New York on Thursday when they were stopped by the airport authorities citing a lookout circular issued by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi police

BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain were allegedly stopped at the Delhi International Airport on Thursday due to a look-out circular issued against the couple related to the fraud allegations at the fintech firm, media reports revealed. The couple were scheduled to travel to New York on Thursday when they were stopped by the airport authorities citing a lookout circular issued by the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi police, reported PTI. 

Grover took to the social media platform, X, to share his side of the story and said that he hadn’t received any communication from the EoW since the FIR filed against him in May. He said, "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). I was going to the US from 16-23 November."

The EOW is currently probing complaints of payments being made at BharatPe to fake human resource consultancies allegedly run by Grover and family. The founder and the others have also been accused of backdating invoices to use funds. 

Providing more details about the development, Sindhu Pillai, joint commissioner of police (EoW), 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,” as reported by Mint. Pillai also said, "The LoC was only meant to stop the couple from travelling abroad and they haven’t been arrested yet." 

The couple allegedly protested when they were stopped at the airport, reported PTI, citing anonymous sources, however, Grover in his X post assured that they "will cooperate as always".

Background At A Glance

Notably, the EOW started investigation in May after a FIR was filed against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and other family members, namely Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain, and Shwetank Jain. This complaint was registered regarding an alleged fraud of Rs 81 crore after the fintech company BharatPe filed a complaint. 

In the complaint, the firm claimed that Grover and his family caused damages worth Rs 81.3 crore via illegitimate payments to fake human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through passthrough vendors related to the accused, false transactions in input tax credit and penalty payments to GST authorities, along with other forged invoices. 

If the accused are convicted for these charges, they would be liable to face up to anything between 10 years to life imprisonment as their punishment.