The BharatPe and Ashneer Grover saga just keeps deeper and deeper with more interesting twists and turns to it. As if its lawsuit against the former managing director by the fintech company wasn’t enough, now Bhavik Koladiya, BharatPe’s original founder has also joined the bandwagon to sue Grover and reclaim his shares.
It is almost like every other day something or the other is happening between these two, whether it is a lawsuit of Rs. 88 crores or Grover making some sarcastic comment or two against the company and its other founders and higher-up executives.
Now, Koladiya has moved the Delhi High Court seeking to reclaim the shares that he’d transferred to Grover and others after some controversy years ago.
Bhavik Koladiya Sues Ashneer Grover
BharatPe’s original founder Bhavik Koladiya had approached the Delhi HC about reclaiming his shares from Ashneer Grover and the matter was listed before Justice Prateek Jalan to be heard.
Koladiya’s lawsuit sought for an “ad interim injunction” that would restrain Grover from creating any third-party rights against the 16,110 shares that had been transferred to him from Koladiya back in December 2018.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi representing Koladiya raised that his client had agreed to sell 1611 of his shares amounting to Rs. 87 lakhs to Grover. The transaction was supposed to be simultaneous but till yet the client has not received the value of the sold shares from Grover.
According to reports, Rohatgi referring to the Sale of Goods Act said “The shares have now become 16,000. I diligently did my part, I transferred the shares and till now I have not received the funds. It is my case that the title need not pass to him (Grover). I am suing for getting my goods back as the transaction is repudiated. I’m an unpaid seller and here the title has not passed.”
Read More: BharatPe Co-Founder Allegedly Abuses, Gives Death Threats To Kotak Employee Over Not Getting IPO Share Allotment
Rohatgi has stated that this is a case of a “transaction without consideration” and when asked why Koladiya had to make the transfer his lawyers said that “My client was gullible”.
BharatPe initially had been incorporated by Koladiya and Shashvat Nakrani in March 2018 each having 50% state and at that time it was actually Koladiya who was the face of the company then. Grover joined as a co-founder in June 2018 and received equity of 32%, Nakrani holding 25.5% and Koladiya still retaining the majority with 42.5% as per data from Registrar of Companies filings.
But things took a turn when suddenly in December 2018, right before Sequoia became an investor in the company, Koladiya was removed from the founders’ list, “owning to discomfort on the part of large institutional investors to have a person with a jail term in the US.”
Apparently, Koladiya had gone to the US in 2007 and started an “unlicensed digital payment system” in his grocery store that violated the US identity theft and mail fraud laws. While Koladiya was arrested he wasn’t punished that heavily just a fine of $100 and in 2015 deported back to India.
Of course, once Sequoia became an investor in BharatPe, the founders reduced Koladiya’s public involvement, making Grover the face of the company with the former being given the title of ‘consultant’.
In light of all this, as per reports, Koladiya on 3rd December 2018 had agreed to sell 1,611 shares valued at Rs.87 lakh which the controversial founder is claiming that he was not paid for properly.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Livemint, The Economic Times, The Indian Express
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