Kotak Wealth Management, represented by law firm Khaitan & Co, in response to Grover’s legal notice, said it reserves the right to take legal action for threats to the lives of its employees. Mint has reviewed the copy of the notice. The content of the legal communication also disputes Grover’s public denial of phone calls.
The mint was first reported On the veracity of the call on January 8.
In an emailed reply, Kotak Wealth Management said that it has filed an appropriate response to the legal notice sent by Grover. “The notice was received by us and was responded appropriately at that time, including on record our objections to the inappropriate language used by Mr. Grover. Appropriate legal action is being taken.”
Grover’s spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Kotak is referring to the leaked audio of a phone call purportedly between Grover and an employee of Kotak Wealth Management. The clip first surfaced online on Wednesday from an anonymous Twitter handle. In the leaked audio, Grover can be heard abusing and threatening to kill a Kotak employee in a so-called police encounter, allegedly for failing to secure funds to buy shares in the Nykaa IPO.
After the audio clip became public, Grover made a statement on Twitter, claiming that the clip was fake. “Friends. Cold! This is a fake audio of some scammer trying to extort money (US$240K in bitcoin). I refuse to budge. I have more character. And the internet has enough scammers,” Grover said on Twitter. He later removed the denial from Twitter and LinkedIn.
A total of three legal communications have been exchanged between Grover, the founder of fintech unicorn BharatPe, and the wealth management arm of Kotak. The Mint has reviewed the communication. The legal battle was started by Grover through law firm Regstreet Law Advisors. However, Kotak Wealth’s reply to the legal notice confirmed the veracity of the call between Grover and an employee of the bank.
“Your customers have called, on several occasions over the phone, our client’s employees in the recent past and have put their lives at risk in addition to using unparliamentary and abusive language, for which our client and his/her employees are subject to appropriate legal reserves the right to take action. Steps taken as they may be advised,” Kotak said on November 2 in response to Grover’s October 30 legal notice.
The legal battle sheds light on how wealthy individuals take huge short-term borrowings from banks to fund their purchases to grab shares of the solicited IPO. They sell their shares after the stock list and repay the banks.
In the first legal notice, Grover and his wife Madhuri alleged that they were in communication with Rohit Mohan, Senior Director, Ultra High Networth Individuals Practice in Kotak, to obtain necessary internal approvals for membership of Nykaa (FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd.). were in ) shares of Rs. 500 crores.
“Our clients had proposed to apply for subscription of shares of FSN in the name of both Mr. Ashneer Grover and Ms. Madhuri Grover, for shares of Rs. 250 crore each,” said Sumit Agarwal, partner at Registry Law Advisors in the legal notice. said.
Grover alleged that the money did not come despite assurances, forcing him to lose a profitable business.
“The refusal by Kotak to provide IPO financing to our clients for the Nayaka IPO is a clear breach of the legal obligations owed to our clients as their wealth managers,” the legal notice said.
In response, Kotak, through his law firm Khaitan, replied that any funding is at the discretion of the bank, and that Grover has no contractual rights.
“Our client denies that there has been any breach on his part in relation to any financial assistance that has been alleged by you or otherwise. Your customers are well aware that financial assistance is at the discretion of the lender and neither contract nor any sanction letter has been executed in favor of your customers,” Kotak said.
Responding to Kotak’s claim, Grover’s attorneys said, “Our clients strongly refute the allegations of defamation relating to any unparliamentary or hate speech used by our clients, or that our clients have abused your clients or its representatives.” issued any threats. It is clear that Your Customers have framed these allegations only as a counter-claim to the claims made by our Customers for breach of various legal obligations by Your Customers.”
The legal communication ended with Grover stating that he was withdrawing all banking ties with Kotak Mahindra Bank.
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