New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court today referred a dispute between BharatPe, an online money transaction platform, and its former managing director Ashneer Grover to a sole arbitrator.

In its plea filed before the Delhi High Court, the fintech company alleged that Mr Grover disclosed confidential information relating to BharatPe on social media platforms, in violation of the employment agreement.

Before the issue reached Delhi High Court, responding to BharatPe’s notice to refer the matter to arbitration, Mr Grover agreed on the formation of an arbitral tribunal but disagreed on the name of sole arbitrator.

In an earlier round of litigation, the Delhi High Court imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Mr Grover over blatant violation of earlier orders and assurances made by him to not post on social media defamatory posts against BharatPe.

It had asked Ashneer Grover as well as the officials of the fintech company not to speak in a “unparliamentary” or “defamatory” manner against one another.

The Delhi High Court issued an order restraining Mr Grover from making defamatory and derogatory statements against BharatPe, its office bearers, or officials, and asked Mr Grover to remove his posts, including one calling the SBI Chairperson “petty”.

Ashneer Grover and his wife allegedly committed financial irregularities when they were at the helm of the fintech platform.

BharatPe terminated the services of Madhuri Jain, head of controls, after an internal probe found misappropriation of funds that ran into crores during her tenure.

The fintech platform claimed that Mr Grover, his wife, and their relatives were engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds and grossly abused company money to fund their lavish lifestyles.

Mr Grover had already moved an arbitration plea with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre pleading that the investigation launched against him was illegal because it violated the shareholder agreement and articles of association.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ashneer Grover, who shot to fame with his outspokenness on Shark Tank show, has once again landed in a controversy for allegedly asking a comedian to take down a roast show he was a part of.

Co-founder and ex managing director of fintech startup BharatPe, Ashneer Grover was frequenty embroiled in controversies when he appeared on Shark Tank India season one.

He recently appeared in a popular comedy show called ‘Pretty Good Roast’ hosted by comedian Aashish Solanki. In the roast, Solanki did some jokes on Ashneer Grover’s removal from his own company BharatPe, a clip of which is now in wide circulation on social media.

The comedian revealed that the jokes didn’t sit well with the guest and he asked his bits to be removed from the video. Later, Solanki also received a legal notice to take down the entire video. The comedian obliged.

“Friends, I have removed the Ep 5 of Pretty Good Roast. I don’t have money to fight the legal battle. I had spent all of it on the show,” comedian Ashish Solank said in a post on his Instagram.

“The response on previous episodes led us to believe our audience were ready for roast humor. However, it seems that some, especially those in power, are not quite there yet,” he added.

The incident has sparked outrage among social media users who are calling out Ashneer Grover for his “doglapan” (duplicity), a word Ashneer Grover became popular for during Shark Tank, which also became the title of his book ‘Doglapan: The Hard Truth about Life and Start-Ups’.

Soon after Shark Tank season 1 in 2022, Ashneer Grover and his wife were removed from BharatPe over allegation of funds misappropriation.

After his short TV stint, Ashneer Grover turned to content creation on social media and featured in Instagram reels, YouTube video and podcasts with several content creators. He once said that he has made more money creating content on social media then he did during his entrepreneurial journey.