Grover writes to Bharatpe for action against top execs

NEW DELHI: Former Bharatpe chief Ashneer Grover has written to the company’s board seeking action against chief executive officer (CEO) Suhail Sameer over his remarks on social media and has also sought resignation of chairman Rajnish Kumar.

“Behen, tere bhai ne saara paisa chura liya (Sister, your brother stole all the money). Very little left to pay salaries,”Sameer had said in response to a comment by Ashneer’s sister, Aashima, on a social media post by former Bharatpe employee Kiran Sarki. The post had raised the issue of sacking of old staff and non-payment of salaries.

Grover in the letter dated April 8 said Sameer’s language in response to the social media post was not only defamatory but also “a public lie and admission of the company being bankrupt by no less than its own CEO and member of the board”.

“Going by precedent and self-proclaimed high standards of this board, the CEO should be immediately served a show cause notice for his despicable public behaviour and immediately put on leave of absence to manage the damage on the brand of the company. Suhail has to conclusively prove to the board that he was not under the influence of alcohol and drugs when he put the said reply on LinkedIn,” Grover contended.

Grover demanded a written apology from Sameer and threatened to pursue criminal defamation otherwise.

“Moreover, chairman Rajnish Kumar should immediately resign. The current incident clearly brings out the fact that Rajnish Kumar condoning the life threat to me by Bhavik Koladiya from his own house and all the planned media leaks leading to my resignation in self respect, have further emboldened the current management to act as hooligans,” Grover said.

On Thursday, Grover had tweeted that Bharatpe “closed its first quarter of ‘degrowth’ and ‘maximum cash burn’ under able (sic) leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer.” However, a Bharatpe spokesperson said the company had registered the strongest quarter in its history. “We have registered 4x growth in our overall revenue over the same period last year,” he said.

MINT Former Bharatpe chief Ashneer Grover.