Greeva Garg –
Published on: August 24, 2021, at 15:17 IST
A Delhi Court has given three weeks to the Delhi Police to conclude the probe into claim from a former Paytm Director Ashok Kumar Saxena, from 2000 to 2004, who said that he co-founded the digital payment platform but did not receive any shares owed.
The dispute is in conflict with a document which was signed in 2001 by Saxena and current Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, stated Saxena to own 55% shares of One97 Communications Private. Ltd., investing $27,500 two decades ago
Saxena alleged Paytm for not allotting his part of ownership stock yet.
The Police submitted a status report regarding the probe but has not concluded the investigation yet.
Metropolitan Magistrate Animesh Kumar has directed the Police to conclude the inquiry as soon as possible and to submit the final report of investigation within three weeks.
Paytm has said that, “The claim amounts to harassment and cited it under criminal proceedings in the prospectus for its proposed $2.2 billion initial public offering (IPO). Saxena has written to the market regulator urging it to stop Paytm from proceeding with the IPO.”
Corporate Governance experts of Paytm said, “The tussle could spark regulatory inquiries and complicate the approval of an IPO that could value Paytm, backed by Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., at up to $25 billion.”
The Police issued an investigation notice for notifying Paytm. In response to the notice, Paytm denied Saxena to be co-founder along with his other claims and stated that, “The document in question was merely a letter of intent which did not materialise into any definitive agreement.”
Saxena claims the document to be official and valid, however, Paytm denies it stating negated in the factual terms.
The matter is posted for a further date on September 13.