Ankiti Bose, co-founder of and ex-CEO of fashion e-commerce startup Zilingo has reportedly filed a criminal complaint against fellow co-founder Dhruv Kapoor and ex-COO Aadi Vaidya, pressing charges of ‘cheating’, ‘criminal intimidation’, ‘conspiracy’, and ‘ Sexual harassment’.
Zilingo founder Ankiti Bose has filed a First Information Report (FIR) with Mumbai police, accusing two of the company’s top executives, co-founder Dhruv Kapoor and former Chief Operating Officer (COO) Aadi Vaidya, of cheating, fraud, criminal intimidation, as well as allegations of sexual and mental harassment.
In a six-page complaint, Bose alleged that Kapoor and Vaidya have engaged in deceptive activities, misleading both her and the company’s investors in an attempt to gain financial advantages and coerce her into relinquishing her shares and business under false pretences.
Bose has alleged that Kapoor and Vaidya misled her and Zilingo’s investors to gain financial advantages. She also claimed that they coerced her to give up shares and business under false pretences.
“As the chief operating officer, Aadi Vaidya engaged in misconduct by falsely attributing loss-making deals to me and extending trade credit to various parties in my name. He then used those deals to threaten me by falsely implicating me to investors, despite the fact that all operational dealings were conducted by him in my previous company. I have been threatened, deceived, and had errors attributed to me in order for Vaidya to fraudulently acquire my shares, which are valued at multiple crores,” Bose said as per the TOI report.
Bose co-founded Zilingo with Kapoor in 2015 and she was one of the most celebrated startup founders at that time. Some reports suggest that Zilingo’s valuation surged around ₹7,000 crore in 2019.
“Ankiti Bose’s allegations against me are completely baseless, untrue, and malicious. A thorough investigation has already proven her wrongdoing based on which she was terminated from the company. This appears to be nothing but retaliatory behaviour. Throughout my tenure at Zilingo, I upheld my integrity by aiding the board’s inquiry into Ankiti’s misconduct while fostering professional relationships and striving to build ethical products,” said Dhruv Kapoor.
After a prolonged boardroom drama which included Bose being fired as the company’s chief executive officer, Zilingo entered liquidation in January last year. It had been one of the highest-profile startups to emerge from Singapore and was said to be in talks to raise fresh money at unicorn valuation before the company imploded.
In June 2022, Bose and Kapoor even joined hands to make a management buyout offer when the Singapore-based business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce startup was staring at liquidation.
What does the complaint say?
“As the Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Aadi Vaidya engaged in misconduct by falsely attributing loss-making deals to me and extending trade credit to various parties in my name. He then used those deals to threaten me by falsely implicating me to investors, despite the fact that all operational dealings were conducted by him in my previous company,” Bose alleged in her complaint.
The former Zilingo CEO alleged that Kapoor and Vaidya were required to share some data with the team. “However, they chose to be sneaky and shady by hiding various company-related data and information. This made it extremely difficult to make informed decisions and collaborate effectively,” the complaint said.
Bose also has made the accusation that the duo “used lewd language and sent me vulgar sexually explicit messages from untraceable accounts and also threatened me that they will target me online and that they will get me into a terrible mental state where I will commit suicide.”
“Mr Dhruv Kapoor and Mr Aadi Vaidya said they also have an intention to create fake WhatsApp messages of my name. I believe they have followed through with this plan and have conspired with unknown individuals to harass me, ultimately leading to the fraudulent acquisition of my shares. This malicious behaviour has caused me significant psychological trauma as a result of the digital harassment,” she added.
Bose’s complaint also accused Kapoor of sexual harassment.
“During a private meeting, Mr Dhruv Kapoor overstepped boundaries by persisting with an intention of initiating a non-consensual and unprofessional sexual relationship,” she alleged in her complaint.
Now Few Points To Understand here are
As per the complaint the harassment happened in 2021, what Took Ankiti Bose to make the complaint after 3 long years. Was she waiting for a good compensation which was denied or seeking time to plan and strategize her next move?
She was in Singapore in 2021, what made her file the complaint in India?
Ankiti Bose Was suspended in 2022, why was she still in the company in 2022 when the sexual harassments happned in 2021, did she filed any complaint to anyone or reported to Singapore authorities.
This entire sexual harassment complaint seems to be like a well strategies, well though step which is taken to teach a lesson and out of some revenge from the CEO & COO of Zilingo.
The complaint has been intentionally filed in India as ankiti bose clearly knows that Indian laws are extremely biased towards woman and if she would have filed the complaint in Singapore, she could be sued for defamation.
Ankiti Bose is not a teenager but a 31 years old mature & well educated, she knows the India’s law on sexual harassment and she knows she will get public sympathy and Indian authorities will take some action on her complaint, even if she is not able to prove the charges, she can still harass her partners for more than 10-15 years because any case in Indian courts runs for minimum of 15-20 years, plus if she loose the case, no action could be initiated on her. After very well planning and backed by the strong team of legal experts she has very strategically filed this police FIR to regain what was taken back from her in 2022.
Lets see what happens in the near future, but this step of ankiti bose has proven how well a woman can misuse the law as a weapon or tool for her revenge against people who have become a hurdle in their success.
As of now the complaint she has filed herself is very mis-leading.
Inventiva has approached Ankiti Bose For her comments on our story and one on one interaction as per writing of this article, Ankiti Bose has not responded to our message, the article will be updated as soon as she respond with her comments for fair journalism.
