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The order on a bail application from Stayzilla co-founder and CEO Yogendra Vasupal has been posted for Thursday.
In his bail application, Vasupal has claimed that he is merely an employee/Director of Inasra Technologies, which runs Stayzilla, and that he is “controlled and managed by investors based in Mumbai.”
His petition also claims that advertising firm Jigsaw Solutions had been paid ₹6.5 crore of the ₹8 crore claimed by the company. The rest had not been paid because of “non-performance of the obligations of the contract.” The petitioner also said he was being dragged into a civil dispute and that he was not personally liable, while it was the complainant (vendor) who had committed criminal offences like intimidation and extortion.
Meanwhile, Jigsaw Solutions founder Aditya CS, in an e-mailed response to a petition from a group of entrepreneurs to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, asked when the authorities are dealing with the Stayzilla case by the book, what is the need for the “start-up and venture capitalist lobby” to rush to the defence of a defaulter. The entrepreneurs’ petition had expressed concerns regarding the manner in which Vasupal was arrested.
Aditya’s e-mail said: “One constant refrain by this lobby is that the case will discourage aspiring entrepreneurs. It will discourage onlythe dishonest ones among them. In fact, this will set a good precedent for them not to cheat their vendors. If Stayzilla had not defaulted and had not pulled down its shutters, there would have been no case at all; that is the bigger picture.”
‘Why the uproar’Aditya also said that of the 200-plus signatories to the petition, hardly half a dozen represented start-ups that break even or make profits. Most of the others have been in operation for over five years. “Are they all worried about skeletons falling out of their wardrobes sooner or later? Are they afraid that the ‘Stayzilla Syndrome’ will catch up with them sooner or later, and it is better put up some defensive walls in anticipation? The next few months will give us an answer,” he stated.
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