BharatPe Board not to intervene in Bhavik-Ashneer stake issue

As the Ashneer-BharatPe fight is now on a legal course, the Board of the company is not going to intervene in a new controversy regarding the fintech company's original founder Bhavik Koladiya and his stake in the firm.

Sources told IANS on Tuesday that this is something Bhavik and Ashneer have to sort out among each other and the Board will stick to the internal governance review done by third-party law and risk assessment firms.

Another co-founder Shashvat Nakrani has written a fresh letter to employees, saying that Ashneer tried to create a false narrative about the company that "we have built together with the right spirit".

"While the content of the enquiry report is confidential and as a board member, I am not at liberty to disclose its findings, I am proud of the fact that our board acted quickly and decisively to uphold good corporate governance," he told employees.

"This whole episode is an aberration and not the norm and the company will turn this crisis into an opportunity," he further added.

Ashneer has quit BharatPe as the company accused him, his wife and their relatives of massive financial irregularities to fund their lifestyles.

Nakrani has said that it is time to now stop "rumours and innuendoes from distracting us and go back to building".

"Time to do what we have done in the past and will do best. We owe this to the fine team that works here, our shareholders and this remarkable country that helps us prosper," he wrote.

The Ashneer Grover-BharatPe tussle that hogged the limelight since January has brought to the fore the need to fix corporate governance while maintaining moral integrity at the very top in the burgeoning Indian startup ecosystem.