The month-long buzz in Indian startup ecosystem about the arrest of homestay aggregator Stayzilla’s founder Yogendra Vasupal is set to an end as he finally granted bail today. The Madras High Court has granted Vesupal bail after spending 28 days in jail.
Vasupal was arrested on March 14 on a complaint from a Chennai-based advertisement firm Jigsaw, which handled outdoor advertising for the company. The FIR was filed under IPC sections 420 – Cheating, 406 – (Criminal Breach of Trust), and 506 (i) – Criminal Intimidation.
Previously, Vasupal’s bail plea was rejected twice, once on March 28 and other on March 23. The bail to Vasupal has been granted on conditions that he should deposit 40 lakh rupees security with the court.
Stazilla had shut its operations on February 24 and said it will reboot once it comes up with a new business strategy. Post this, Jigsaw had registered a complaint against Vasupal and CFO Sachit Singhi. Vesupal wrote a Medium blogpost which appreared hours after his arrest, as a cry for help from a founder who claimed to have been wrongfully arrested.
As per the report, the counsellor for Jigsaw pushed for an out of court settlement today. However, Vasupal’s counsellors denied the offer stating that Vasupal was not ready for a settlement. Judge S Baskaran, termed the case as ‘purely a dispute between two businessmen’ while granting the bail.
