The ongoing tussle between Ashneer Grover and the BharatPe board intensified with the founder of the fintech firm accusing chairman Rajnish Kumar of bias and acting in a manner detrimental to his interests.
Grover also hit out at co-founder Bhavik Koladiya for allegedly using expletives in a telephone call.
Reacting to the allegation, Kumar, a veteran banker and former chairman of SBI, offered to resign from the BharatPe board even as he reportedly said Grover should have displayed greater maturity in his conduct.
BharatPe has now sacked Madhuri Jain Grover, the head of control at the fintech firm, for alleged financial irregularities. It is not clear whether Grover’s outburst was triggered by the company’s decision to sack Madhuri.
“As per your query, we can confirm that the services of Madhuri Jain Grover have been terminated in accordance with the terms of her employment agreement,’’ a company spokesperson said.
The dramatic developments at the start-up unfolded after it engaged risk advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal to conduct a governance review. Initial findings of A&M reveal alleged wrongdoings by Madhuri Jain in employee hiring.
Since then, the tussle between Grover and the board has intensified with the former sending a letter earlier this month seeking the removal of CEO Suhail Sameer. Grover has now written a fresh letter to the board where he alleged that the governance review was riddled with premeditation, bias and prejudice.
He further alleged that Koladiya called him and asked him to meet at a location without disclosing the agenda or the reason behind the proposed meeting. Grover claimed that Kumar was also with Koladiya during the call.
“I was informed on the said call that the two of them wanted to meet me to discuss some issues and that I should travel to Gurugram (sic) for the said meeting,” Grover said.
Grover alleged that when he declined to go to the meeting since he was not given its agenda, Koladiya abused him.
“The manner in which Koladiya, who is neither a member of the board nor an employee of the company, is being involved by Rajnish Kumar in the communications with me also fortifies my concerns that the company has been wilfully leaking confidential information as regards the present dispute to third parties,” he said.
Responding to these charges, Kumar said in an internal reply to the letter, that they were baseless and he was not party to the call between Grover and Koladiya.
Offering his resignation, the former State Bank chairman said that if the board had any doubts regarding his impartiality, he has no intention to continue and that he cannot tolerate “mudslinging by anyone”.
These developments come amid reports of both BharatPe and its shareholders, and Grover having settlement talks wherein the latter has sought indemnity from any future action against him in the whole matter.
The recent developments at BharatPe had also caught the attention of the RBI which is reportedly looking into violations of corporate governance rules. RBI’s concern stems from its approval to BharatPe and the Centrum group to set up a bank — Unity Small Finance — which has taken over the troubled PMC Bank.
This is because Unity Small Finance Bank (USFBL), a joint venture between BharatPe and the Centrum group, had recently completed the process of taking over PMC Bank.
