BharatPe: HR Firms Linked To Grovers Syphoned Rs 7.6 Crore, Say Delhi Police

In its status report filed with the Delhi High Court, the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police has said that eight human resource firms linked to Madhuri Jain were involved in syphoning off Rs 7.6 crore from fintech firm BharatPe.

Jain was the former director of controls at BharatPe and the wife of former co-founder Ashneer Grover.

Eight firms—where the proprietors are all relatives of Jain, her father Suresh Jain and brother Shwetank Jain—were involved in creating false invoices for HR services to BharatPe, according to the Delhi police's investigation.

The companies under investigation include:

1. Vardhaman Marketing

2. Impulse Marketing

3. Vista Services

4. Evolve Bizserve

5. Team Source

6. Team Works

7. True Works Co.

8. Vikash Enterprises (Team Plus Services)

"The firms were established, and their bank accounts were opened only for the purpose of syphoning off funds and causing wrongful gain to the alleged persons," the police said in its report.

BQ Prime has reviewed a copy of the status report. The Mint newspaper first reported on the matter on Wednesday.

According to the police, in the case of the first six firms listed above, credit entries in their respective bank accounts were only from BharatPe, while debit entries were in the form of self-cash withdrawals. Other debit entries were in the names of alleged individuals or their companies, including Suresh Jain, Madhuri Jain, Manju Goyal, Shivalik Fabrics, Ishu Fabrics, etc.

"From the analysis of official emails of alleged persons and from examination of company bank accounts, it has been revealed that petitioner Madhuri Jain used to direct the account branch to expedite the process for making payments to these HR consultants," the police said.

The police also said that in certain cases, Madhuri Jain obtained vital information about recruited candidates and would share it with her father and brother. These were candidates hired through peers or industry recommendations. However, with the use of bogus invoices, it was shown that they were hired through the consulting firms. These firms would then charge hefty commissions for the recruited candidates from BharatPe.

As part of their investigation, the police looked at these invoices where the HR firms had used a specific HSIN code. According to the Goods and Services Tax Department, this HSIN code was used for permanent placement agencies and other executive search services.

The proprietors of these HR firms could not provide any proof of work done against these invoices, the status report said.

Delhi Police has also investigated the case of 33 non-existing/fake vendors in the case, where it found that addresses of 23 of these vendors were not proper and could not be traced.

This investigation is however in the initial stages, the police said.

In March 2022, BharatPe fired Ashneer Grover after an internal governance review found serious issues. The review highlighted the issues of fake vendors and impropriety in the recruitment process. Madhuri Jain was sacked soon after the review report was submitted to the board.

BharatPe had filed a criminal case with the Delhi EOW against Grover and family members in December 2022.