BharatPe's founder Ashneer Gover on Wednesday announced that he is going on a three-month voluntary sabbatical after a purported audio clip went viral and exposed a huge fight between him and the Kotak Mahindra Bank. Ashneer Grover announced his decision on his Twitter handle in which he stated that after deliberation and introspection he has decided to go on a leave of absence till March-end.
In his detailed statement, BharatPe's MD Ashneer Grover wrote, "I have been relentlessly at work building up BharatPe for almost 4 years. After much deliberation and introspection, I plan to take a temporary leave of absence from BharatPe till March-end. I will return on or before 1st April 2022. I am planning to rejuvenate and refresh myself for our next sprint of value creation. I expect to spend this time more deeply about our next step of product development and BharatPe's path to profitability and IPO. "
Read Ashneer Grover's full statement here:
Ashneer Grover's viral abuse video row with Kotak Mahindra
Recently, an audiotape went viral on social media, which the Kotak Mahindra Bank alleged was of their employee being threatened and abused by the BharatPe's MD Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri for not being able to secure financing and allocation of share in Nykaa's blockbuster Initial Public Offering (IPO) last year. Following that Kotak Mahindra released a statement and stated that it will take legal action against the couple for their abusive language against its staff. However, the allegation was denied by Grover. In a tweet he deleted later, had called it a fake audio by "some scamster trying to extort funds ($2,40,000 bitcoins)" and added that he "refused to buckle".
BharatPe vs Kotak Mahindra
It is pertinent to mention here that it is not the first time Grover and his wife locked horns with Kotak Mahindra. Last year, Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri Grover had sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank's managing director and chief executive officer Uday Kotak and other senior management, and sought damages for the gains Grover and his wife would have made after subscribing to shares worth Rs 500 crore in Nykaa besides Rs 1 lakh towards the cost of the legal notice.
Acknowledging the legal notice sent by Grover & his wife, Kotak Mahindra in its statement had said, "It was received by us and was replied to appropriately at the time, including placing on record our objections to inappropriate language used by Grover." It added, "Appropriate legal action is being pursued."