Ashneer Grover’s sister talks about unpaid salaries at BharatPe; CEO says, ‘Tere bhai ne sara paisa chura liya’

The drama around Shark Tank India judge and entrepreneur Ashneer Grover’s exit from his company BharatPe refuses to die down. The entrepreneur, who was one of the co-founders of the company, parted ways from it in quite the public fashion after allegations that he was misusing company funds cropped up. Since then, Ashneer and the company’s top management have often indulged in a public war of words. The latest episode of that took place on a LinkedIn post of one of the company’s employees where Suhail Sameer, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said they didn’t have money to pay salaries since Ashneer stole it all. Also read: Ashneer Grover shows his bed on floor at friend’s house amid ‘lavish lifestyle’ claim by BharatPe board: ‘I’m appalled’

An individual purportedly an employee of BharatPe posted a long note on the social media platform LinkedIn recently. In it, he alleged that the company hasn’t paid their salaries for March. He tagged Suhail Sameer as well as Ashneer. Ashneer commented on the post, writing, “Folks please look into this. Not done – their salaries have to be paid before anything”, tagging Suhail and the company’s Head of Financial Control Hersimran Kaur.

As others criticised the company over the allegations in the comments section, Ashneer’s sister Aashima Grover also waded in, calling the company’s top management ‘a shameless bunch’. The jibe was noticed by Suhail, who responded to her comment claiming that they were unable to pay the salaries since Ashneer had swindled all the money. “Behen – tere bhai ne sara paisa chura liya (sister, your brother stole all the money). Very little left to pay salaries.”

The comment and its tone was criticised by many who felt it wasn’t befitting a CEO of a such a company. Others, however, called it funny. And while Ashneer did not respond to the public allegation, Aashima did. In her first direct response to Suhail, she wrote, “But still money is left for your ESOP, bonus, increment, parties and offsite and not to forget paid media.” Then, responding to another comment criticising Suhail’s tone, she wrote, “We aren’t surprised at all by Suhail’s comments. That’s him. Now you can imagine the plight of the company and what culture they would be building.”

Ashneer had resigned from his post as managing director of the company last month after allegations of misappropriations of funds. He and wife Madhuri Jain Grover were later removed from the company’s board as well.

Ashneer rose to mainstream fame late last year after he appeared on the business-based reality show Shark Tank India as one of the six sharks. His blunt style and frequent angry outbursts on the show made him a fan favourite, albeit a polarising one. Several of his utterances on the show have since become viral memes on the internet.