BharatPe’s co-founder and Managing Director, Ashneer Grover, is now resorting to legal aid in order to keep his interests and stake protected in the company amid reports of financial investigations and controversies. Grover has hired New Delhi-based law firm Karanjawala & Co, reported The Economic Times.

Grover is looking to keep his 9 percent stake in the $2.8-billion company in the face of a potential ouster from the fintech company. BharatPe had recently announced that it would be conducting an internal audit and financial investigation in the light of financial irregularities.

“He (Grover) has begun conversations with Karanjawala as of now and is exploring his legal options against a potential ouster from BharatPe,” the ET report added, quoting a person aware of the matter.

Earlier, a few reports suggested that the Board of Directors had already terminated the services of Grover along with 15 other employees, which included Madhuri Jain, head of controls at BharatPe and wife of Ashneer Grover. But BharatPe had issued a clarifying statement saying that no employee was terminated from service.

“The Board of BharatPe has not terminated the services of any employee at this stage. Reports suggesting any termination are baseless and untrue,” said BharatPe in a statement.

“The Board remains committed to an independent and thorough audit process. No action has been taken or will be taken till the audit has been completed. We again urge the media not to speculate in advance and make a judgement based on uninformed sources,” said BharatPe.

The discrepancies that have been noted in a preliminary investigation include discrepancies with multiple conflict of interests around Grover and invoicing as well as financial payments in related-party transactions, among others.

According to the report, the audit is looking to establish the nature and scale of these irregularities. Besides Grover, Madhuri is also under the scanner. The board will take action based on the findings of the audit report. It will be critical to establish if the irregularities were ‘premeditated’ or not for anyone to be sacked. It is not clear when Alavarez & Marsal will submit its report.

BharatPe had hired risk consultancy firm Alvarez and Marshal through its legal firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, to conduct an independent audit into the discrepancies. Grover is currently on ‘voluntary leave’ until April 1 regarding a completely different controversy.

Grover found himself embroiled in a rash of lawsuits and facing backlash after an audio clip emerged of him abusing a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee. Madhuri Jain was also involved in the conversation and has also gone on leave. The couple had been berating the manager for failing to get an allotment and finance for Nykaa's IPO. While Grover had initially maintained the clip was doctored and fake, he and his wife sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank, including MD & CEO Uday Kotak for not providing IPO financing in response to the bank’s legal action against the two over the abusive call.

The BoD at Resilient Innovations which is BharatPe’s parent company, which includes Rajnish Kumar, former chairman of State Bank of India, Rahul Kishore from Coatue Management, Harshjit Sethi, managing director at Sequoia Capital India, Kewal Kundanlal Handa, former chairman, Union Bank of India, and Meyer Malka from Ribbit Capital, have reportedly been emphasising that Grover needs to leave the company over his recent actions and behaviour.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)