SINGAPORE: Ms Ankiti Bose, the co-founder and ex-CEO of Zilingo, has filed criminal complaints against two of her former colleagues at the fashion start-up, the Times of India reported on Wednesday (Apr 24).
Ms Bose pressed charges of cheating, intimidation, conspiracy and harassment against her fellow co-founder Dhruv Kapoor and the company’s former chief operating officer Aadi Vaidya, according to the newspaper.
In a six-page complaint reviewed by the Times of India, Ms Bose alleged that Mr Kapoor and Mr Vaidya had misled her and the Singapore-based company’s investors while attempting to gain financial advantages.
She also alleged that they “coerced her into relinquishing her shares and business under false pretences”, it added.
This took place between April 2020 and 2022, Ms Bose said in her complaint.
In April 2022, Ms Bose was suspended as the company’s CEO following an investigation into the start-up’s accounts after complaints about alleged financial irregularities were raised. She was fired a month later.
In his role as COO, Mr Vaidya “engaged in misconduct by falsely attributing loss-making deals to me and extending trade credit to various parties in my name”, the Times of India reported Ms Bose as saying in her complaint.
“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,” she continued
“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.”
The term “crore” denotes a value of 10 million in India, with 10 million rupees being the equivalent of about US$120,000.
Mr Kapoor and Mr Vaidya also exhibited “sneaky and shady” behaviour by concealing company-related information, Ms Bose claimed, adding that this made it difficult for her to make informed decisions.
The pair also “intentionally did not attend meetings” with financial adviser Kroll, which had been hired to conduct a forensic audit to investigate the complaints made against the company.
Their absence “further complicated matters for me and disrupted the other team members”, Ms Bose said.
In statements released on Wednesday, Mr Kapoor and Mr Vaidya said that Ms Bose’s claims are “completely baseless” and untrue.
“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,” said Mr Kapoor.
Mr Vaidya said that Ms Bose’s allegations “seems like nothing but a clear afterthought done with a malicious intention to harm my reputation and harass me”.
