In a country where Bollywood celebs get bail in criminal cases within hours, it’s pathetic that Yogendra Vasupal, CEO of now shut Stayzilla, is still under arrest. A bail plea has been moved by his wife, Rupal Yogendra, but it is unlikely that Vasupal, popularly known as Yogi, will get bail before the weekend.
Latest news, from Techseen’s sources is that Yogi is in Central Jail, on the outskirts of Chennai, and that he is fine and his family has got to see him.
Yogi has garnered sympathy from Indian startups and entrepreneurs, but there is a section out there questioning the stand taken by the industry. Is Jigsaw, the ad agency that filed the criminal case against Yogi, subsequently leading to his arrest, not a startup? Shouldn’t the industry be sympathetic towards its CEO Aditya CS too, who is losing money? Valid questions. So why isn’t the industry sympathetic towards him?
Before Aditya, or his supporters can claim the right to earn sympathy, or see the industry take his side, there are questions that Aditya and his supporters need to answer:
- Why was a dispute between two organizations made out to be a personal case against Yogi?
- Why did Aditya’s lawyer take the “prerogative” to file a criminal case, when disputes of these nature are usually “civil cases”?
- Who pulled the strings to get the Magistrate to sign an arrest warrant at 9.45 PM, when the courts close at 6 PM?
- Why was there a delay in handing over the official copy of FIR filed by the police to Yogi’s family?
- Why the whereabouts about Yogi were kept secret for long and why his family made to run from police station to another to track him?
- Did Aditya’s “dad” who “being a part of the press” really “wield” his “influence”? [While some reports suggest that Aditya’s father is an ex-employee of Times of India, one entrepreneur close to Yogi said that he was “probably with Outlook.” Techseen couldn’t independently verify both the “probable” connections.]
What’s the dispute about?
In one sentence that Stayzilla used services of Jigsaw Advertising and that the former still owes the agency INR 17.2 million (approx US$259,000). That’s what the agency says. Stayzilla agrees that the company owes the agency money, but it disputes the “quantum” that it owes, and it had advised the agency to take the legal route; and that’s what the law suggests; and that’s what any law abiding citizen or firm would do.
A civil case turned into a criminal case
Maheshwer Peri, former publisher of Outlook, and now an entrepreneur and Founder of edtceh portal Careers360 says in a Facebook post, “This isn’t normal. This isn’t due process of law. This isn’t about law taking its own course. This is a civil case being converted into a criminal one. This is about police abusing their powers because the agency…