Former India chief Ashnir Grover wrote a letter to the company’s board seeking action against CEO Suhail Sameer after his offensive remarks on social media and demanded the resignation of chairman Rajneesh Kumar.
In response to a comment from Ashnir’s sister Ashima on a social media post by Karan Sarki, a former employee in India, Samir said, “Behentere bhai ne ne saara paisa chura liya (sister, your brother has stolen all the money). There is very little left to pay. Salary.”
In the post, Sarki raised the issue of dismissal of old employees and non-payment of salaries.
In a letter dated April 8, Grover, a copy of which was reviewed by PTI, said in response to the social media post that Samir’s language was not only defamatory, but also publicly confessed to being a blatant lie and bankruptcy of the company. Its own CEO and board members.
“According to this board’s precedent and self-proclaimed high standards, the CEO should be given immediate notice to show cause for his disgusting public behavior and should be given immediate leave to manage the company’s brand damage.”
“Suhail will have to prove to the board that he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs when he gave the answer on LinkedIn,” Grover said.
On Thursday, he tweeted that BharatPe “has closed its first quarter ‘Agroth’ and ‘Maximum Cash Burn’ under the able (sic) leadership of Rajneesh Kumar and Suhail Sameer.” However, a spokesperson for BharatPe said the company had the strongest quarterly registration in its history.
“We’ve recorded a 4-fold increase in our overall revenue over the same period last year. On a quarterly basis, despite the third wave of Covid-19, the growth has been 30 percent. Compared to month-on-month, all our metrics have grown faster,” Says.
In March 2022, India’s merchant total payment value (TPV) increased by 17 per cent, consumer TPV by 39 per cent, loan facility by 31 per cent and revenue by 21 per cent, compared to February 2022, the spokesperson said.
“In the future, we are tracking well to break our merchant business and make our consumer business stronger. We urge the media to take official comments from the company and not from former employees who do not have business information,” the spokesman said.
In the letter, Grover said that all of Samir’s transactions should be overseen by an independent auditor and that he should be reinstated as CEO only if an audit report is submitted to the board and it relieves him of any wrongdoing.
“There’s little to show in terms of action here that the truth will prove – what was done to me was a well-planned discriminatory conspiracy by the board at the behest of investors, not an administrative review,” Grover said.
India removed Grover from all positions in the company in March, and Grover’s family and relatives have been accused of being involved in widespread misuse of company funds.
Grover has sought a written apology from Sameer and in his absence he and his sister may seek compensation and seek criminal defamation against the Indian CEO and company.
Samir apologized for his comments after being criticized by several people on social media.
Chairman Rajneesh Kumar should also resign immediately. The present incident clearly highlights the fact that Rajneesh Kumar has pardoned the threat to my life from Bhavik Koladia from his own home and leaked all the planned media leading to my resignation out of self-respect. Encouraged to do so, “said Grover.
He said management felt they had received a “carte blanche” from the board and its chairman to target him and his family without fear of retaliation.
“It also proves that the Governance Review, which was supposed to cover everything, refused to fully investigate the allegations made against Chairman Suhail, leading him to further believe that he is above all,” Grover said.