BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover’s brother-in-law arrested in Rs 81 crore fraud case

 During investigation, it was revealed that Deepak Gupta was the procurement head at in the complainant company during the period in which the alleged misappropriation of funds took place

Ashneer Grover with wife

PTI, New Delhi, 20.09.24 :  Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested a family member of BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds with the fintech company, police said on Friday.

Deepak Gupta, who is a brother-in-law of Grover, was arrested on Friday and produced before the court from where he was sent to police custody for five days, they said. Gupta was named in the FIR which was registered against Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain and their family member in May 2023 in the Rs 81-crore fraud case, a police officer said.

During investigation, it was revealed that Gupta was the procurement head at in the complainant company during the period in which the alleged misappropriation of funds took place, according to a police statement.

"Gupta used to acknowledge the bogus deliveries of standees, etc on the basis of which the payments were made to the non-existent firms. His involvement in the case is also corroborated from interrogation of accused Amit Bansal who was arrested earlier and presently in judicial custody," the statement read.

Gupta's arrest is the second arrest in this case so far, officials said.

In August this year, the EOW had arrested Amit Kumar Bansal, who allegedly was one of the members of the non-existing firms that had received payments of Rs 72 crore from the then directors of BharatPe between 2019 and 2021.

BharatPe has accused Grover and his family of causing losses to the firm to the tune of about Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human-resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input-tax credit and payment of penalty to Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities, illegal payments to travel agencies, forged invoices and destruction of evidence.