Ashneer Grover, co-founder and managing director of BharatPe has once again found himself in a controversy. The case concerns a leaked phone call, allegedly made from Ashneer Grover to an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank. During the phone conversation, it was alleged that Ashneer used abusive language with profanity and even issued death threats.

Ashneer Grover’s response

In response to the leaked audio clip, Ashneer said it was fake. He explained that a scammer was trying to intimidate him and demanded an extortion of $240,000. He said the extortion had to be paid in bitcoins. However, Ashneer later deleted his tweet about the extortion story.

He again explained that he deleted the tweet, as the audio clip is no longer available in the public domain. He said the audio clip was deleted from Twitter and even Soundcloud. As such, he deleted his extortion tweet.

Ashneer Grover’s Equations with Kotak Mahindra Bank

Whether the audio clip is genuine or fake is something that will likely be decided by a court. However, one thing is clear: Ashneer Grover is not very happy with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

According to Grover’s legal team, Kotak Mahindra Bank failed to finance the IPO of FSN (Nykaa’s parent company). This happened even when Grover was assured of securing margin financing for the IPO. Also called IPO financing, margin financing is a type of short-term loan given to high net worth individuals.

The legal notice sent by Ashneer Grover to Kotak Mahindra Bank states that due to its inability to provide margin funding, Ashneer Grover missed an important business/investment opportunity. According to the notice, Kotak had declined funding for reasons including high lending rates and erratic FII movements.

Kotak Mahindra Bank Response

In response to the legal notice sent by Ashneer Grover’s legal team, Kotak Mahindra Bank said it will take appropriate legal action against Ashneer Grover in this matter. The bank said there was no question of infringement or violation on its part.

Kotak Mahindra Bank also pointed to the use of abusive language by Ashneer Grover. This presents the possibility that the audio clip that was leaked on Twitter is actually true. The whole matter must be decided by the court.

This isn’t the first time BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover has found himself in controversy. Previously, there were reports that the work culture at BharatPe was quite demanding. For this reason, it was alleged that many employees left the company. Ashneer Grover was also criticized for his rude behavior at the Shark Tank India show. It is an Indianized version of the American reality show about entrepreneurs and investors.