Amid the recent controversy involving Ashneer Grover, co-founder and managing director of fintech BharatPe, he heaped praise on Uday Kotak, chairman and MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank, saying that “the banker is a legend”.
“Uday Kotak is a legend. I am privileged to have started my career at Kotak-7 years – and can tell you that no one in India understands or does finance better!” The embattled co-founder said in response to a LinkedIn post.
A LinkedIn post by communications professional Radhika Bajoria talks about Uday Kotak’s journey from being born into a middle-class family, his passion for cricket, which earned him a net worth of $16 billion after completing his journey as a banker. acquired property.
The words assume significance in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding the Grover and Uday Kotak-led Kotak Mahindra Bank. Kotak Mahindra had on January 10 issued legal notices to Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover following a dispute over IPO financing. The private bank’s asset management arm had said it would take legal action against Grover for his use of hate speech and threats.
The entire controversy came to the fore after an audio of a phone call purportedly between Grover and an employee of Kotak Wealth Management went viral on social media. The clip first surfaced online 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 scamster 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.
In an emailed reply, Kotak Mahindra Bank had acknowledged that the couple had sent a legal notice in October, without elaborating on the reasons. Kotak Wealth Management said that it has given an appropriate response to the legal notice sent by Grover to the company.
“We had received the notice and responded appropriately at the time, including taking on record our objections to the inappropriate language used by Mr. Grover. Appropriate legal action is being taken,” Kotak Bank said.
On January 19, Ashneer Grover had said that he was taking voluntary leave till March and would return in April. BharatPe serves over 75 lakh merchants across 150 cities, and has already facilitated disbursement of total loans. 3,000 crores to its merchants since its launch.
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