Ashneer Grover Alleges Fellow BharatPe Co-founder Bhavik Koladiya Of Stealing Data From 150 Million Users

Former Shark Tank India judge Ashneer Grover, who also co-founded BharatPe, has written an email to the National Payments Council of India (NPCI) and BharatPe's independent director Kaushik Dutta, alleging data theft of around 150 million Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users of BharatPe by fellow co-founder Bhavik Koladiya.

"Biggest Data Theft In India"

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¡°It was a grave mistake of giving him (Koladiya) a chance at redemption at BharatPe, which he misused to pull off the biggest data theft in India till date¡­Bhavik previously was convicted in the US for credit card fraud, where he was put under house arrest for 18 months and subsequently deported to India. And, in India, he also has a FIR registered against him at Delhi airport as he attempted to travel to Gujarat on a forged ticket. I¡¯ve attached documents pertaining to his conviction and copy of the FIR,¡± Grover wrote in an email on February 6, as per a Moneycontrol report.

"BharatPe has so far processed billions of UPI transactions at merchants and in turn was privy to data of more than 150 Mn UPI users in the country. The data of transacting user was obtained at BharatPe using APIs with Yes Bank, Federal Bank and ICICI Bank," Grover said.

Also Read: Ousted Co-Founder Ashneer Grover Tweets 'Poem' After BharatPe's CEO Suhail Sameer Resigns

Bhavik Koladiya Denies Allegations

"I strongly deny the baseless and false allegations made against me by Ashneer Grover. The allegations are nothing but an act of retaliation and frustration on his part, resulting from his removal from BharatPe and my ongoing legal suit against him in Delhi High Court,¡± Koladiya has said.

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¡°I take the privacy and security of our users very seriously and I do not take these allegations lightly. However, in this particular case, there is no cause for concern as the claims made by Mr. Grover are completely without merit,¡± he added.

BharatPe Calls The Allegations Baseless

BharatPe has said that the data of its customers are protected and it observes high-security standards.

"This allegation is malicious and completely baseless. BharatPe fiercely protects the data of its customers and observes high-security standards¡­OTPless is our service provider that only enables verification via WhatsApp and is used by less than 10 percent of our merchant base and we are fully compliant on all our data privacy obligations with our customers and partners,¡± BharatPe¡¯s official spokesperson said, as per the report.

Koladiya was one of the company's founders and the first CEO, had left BharatPe in August 2021.

Also Read: 'There Is No BharatPe Without Me,' Says Ashneer Grover

Ashneer Grover's Mail

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¡°Bhavik did a very systematic fraud, where he formed another company in the name of his wife Dharti Koladiya by the name of ¡®Otpless Solutions Private Limited¡¯ in 2021, while he still was at BharatPe. He then transferred all the privileged and confidential data of BharatPe to this company OTPLess. He also hired the core team he worked at BharatPe at OTPLess over time,¡± Grover wrote in the email.

Ashneer Grover said that whistleblowers within BharatPe brought this data theft development to his attention. ¡°Whistleblowers are being silenced (hushed up) by the current management under Chairman Mr. Rajnish Kumar,¡± he added, as per the report.

And that's not all.

Ashneer Grover has requested NPCI to conduct a forensic audit of OTPLess servers and BharatPe architecture/servers to assess the extent of the data breach and take immediate remedial measures. ¡°This is a serious breach of privacy of UPI users and should be punishable under law,¡± Grover wrote.

Grover also requested BharatPe's Independent Director Dutta to investigate whether BharatPe management has been pursuing frivolous cases and complaints against him as a smoke screen to cover up this more serious crime. He called for a full audit of IT systems and the level of access enjoyed by previous employees now working at OTPLess.

¡°Necessary actions against all management who have been complicit in this crime including removal from board and employment and cancellation of their ESOPs and benefits availed at BharatPe,¡± Grover wrote, as per the report.

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