BharatPe's EOW probe traced INR 81 crore to backdated invoices and fake consultancies

The Economic Offences Wing's investigation into BharatPe's fraud complaint found a host of unexplained payments made to allegedly fake HR consultancies by former co-founder Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover — the company's former head of controls — and her family members, according to a status report filed in the Delhi High Court.

The accused allegedly used backdated invoices to syphon funds from BharatPe's accounts as commissions for recruitment work. The probe has two major parts totalling over INR 81 crore, and is examining bank transfers involving Grover and Jain between 2019 and 2022 to the tune of INR 56 crore, with the total alleged involvement potentially higher as the investigation continues.

The allegations remained just that — the EOW status report frames an ongoing probe, not a conviction — but they mapped an alleged money trail through consultancies connected to the founders' family, in a company whose co-founder had been one of Indian fintech's most prominent faces.

Recruitment commissions were allegedly routed through fake HR consultancies on backdated invoices — payments that looked routine until the trail was mapped.

The person running controls was the co-founder's wife, so the same family allegedly both authorised and benefited from the payments.

The company's own fraud complaint triggered the EOW case, making the founders' conduct the subject of a state investigation rather than an internal dispute.

When the head of controls is family, controls are decoration: invoices nobody challenged became the centrepiece of a criminal fraud probe.

The EOW continued its investigation with the alleged total above INR 81 crore and room to grow, keeping the Grover family's alleged 2019-2022 transfers under examination as the Delhi High Court monitored the status report.