BharatPe’s co-founder and managing director, Ashneer Grover, is seeking legal help amid mounting pressure on him to exit the company permanently, multiple people in the know said.

Grover has roped in New Delhi-based law firm Karanjawala & Co. and is engaging with them on how to best safeguard his position and keep his shareholding of around 9 per cent intact in the fintech startup, one of the people said.

“He (Grover) has begun conversations with Karanjawala as of now and is exploring his legal options against a potential ouster from BharatPe,” a person aware of the matter said.

BharatPe issued a statement, saying it is conducting an investigation and audit of the firm, with a new twist emerging about alleged financial irregularities in the company valued at USD 2.8 billion. The board also said that no termination of any employee had taken place.

A person familiar with the details of the charges said these involve financial irregularities through multiple discrepancies around invoicing, payments for QR-code fleet, and related-party transactions resulting in a conflict of interest.

“The audit is looking to establish the nature and scale of these irregularities. Besides Grover, Madhuri, his wife is also under the scanner. The board will take action based on the findings of the audit report,” one of the people said. “It will be critical to establish if the irregularities were premeditated or not for anyone to be sacked,” this person said.

“It’s a clean-up time…Audit is to give a clean state for the company from here on but pretty much every other stakeholder in the company is gunning for Ashneer,” one of the people said.