BharatPe co-founder and MD, Ashneer Grover, will be taking a voluntary leave of absence from BharatPe till the end of March. 

“Ashneer Grover has today informed the Board of his decision to take voluntary leave of absence from BharatPe till March end. Ashneer has co-built BharatPe from scratch and his decision is consistent with his passionate commitment to the future success of the company. The Board has accepted Ashneer’s decision which we agree is in the best interests of the company, our employees and investors, and the millions of merchants we support each day,” the company said in a statement.

The company’s CEO Suhail Sameer will continue to lead the team. Grover has been in the midst of controversy for the past few weeks for an audio recording allegedly featuring the entrepreneur bashing a Kotak Mahindra Bank relationship manager.

After the audio recording surfaced on the social media, Grover had also put out a tweet claiming that the clip was fake. “Folks. Chill! It’s a FAKE audio by some scamster trying to extort funds ($240K in bitcoins). I refused to buckle. I’ve got more character. And internet has got enough scamsters,” he said in a tweet. However, the tweet was later deleted by Grover.

In October 2021, Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Grover had also sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank for not providing them financing in Nykaa’s IPO. Responding to the legal notice, the bank said it will take “appropriate legal action” against Grover.

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