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Ashneer Grover, Co-founder and Managing Director of BharatPe, has said the board of directors must let him run the fintech company, or buy out his stake in the company for Rs 4,000 crore.

In an interview to Moneycontrol.com published on Friday, Ashneer said, “Either I’ll run the company or they buy me out. There is no third option.“

Ashneer’s demand comes at a time when BharatPe’s board of directors has launched an independent audit of the company’s internal processes and systems.

Prior to that, in a January 19 press release, the fintech unicorn said that Ashneer had informed the board of his decision to take a voluntary leave of absence until the end of March.

Since then, multiple reports have emerged about the misappropriation of funds and financial fraud.

According to a Mint report on Friday, a preliminary internal investigation has revealed instances of financial fraud. This was reportedly based on the findings of a report by risk advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal.

BharatPe’s legal firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, had appointed Alvarez and Marsal to advise the Board on its recommendations.

Ashneer told Moneycontrol.com that the allegations are part of a ‘witch-hunt’ to oust him from BharatPe.

“I’m going to fight for my rights. You cannot run a pre-judged process against me. You can’t tell me that a governance audit is being done, without telling me what it’s about, and go leak to the press, saying, ‘let’s see what sticks’. Let’s disrepute him because if we do that enough he will come to the table and negotiate,” Ashneer said.