Ankiti Bose, the former CEO of Zilingo, a B2B fashion startup, has filed a shocking case of sexual harassment against the company’s co-founder, Dhruv Kapoor, and former chief operating officer, Aadi Vaidya.
According to the FIR (First Information Report) filed by Bose, the alleged incidents took place in March 2021.
In her complaint, Bose alleges that Kapoor and Vaidya threatened her and demanded sexual favors.
The FIR states, “The two used to call at odd hours of the night and threatened me that they would sack me if I didn’t extend sexual favors to them and meet them in a hotel room. This caused me a lot of mental agony and stress.”
Bose further claims that she was also threatened against speaking about the company’s deteriorating financial condition.
This revelation comes after a tumultuous period for Zilingo, where Bose was suspended as CEO in April 2022 due to alleged discrepancies in the company’s accounting.
In response, Dhruv Kapoor has denied the allegations, terming them “completely baseless, untrue, and malicious.” He stated, “A thorough investigation has already proven her wrongdoing, based on which she was terminated from the company. This appears to be nothing but retaliatory behavior.”
Similarly, Aadi Vaidya also dismissed the allegations against him as “completely baseless and untrue,” claiming, “This seems like nothing but a clear afterthought done with a malicious intention to harm my reputation and harass me.”
Interestingly, Bose’s FIR also accuses Vaidya of engaging in misconduct by falsely attributing loss-making deals to her and extending trade credit in her name.
The FIR alleges, “Vaidya 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.”
Explaining the delay in filing the FIR, Bose claims that although she was sacked in May 2022, she resigned from her post in June of that year and then took up a new job, leaving her with little time to file a complaint.
The alleged discrepancies in Zilingo’s accounting were discovered during a due diligence process for a new funding round, where the company was looking to raise $150-200 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
In May 2022, Zilingo commissioned Deloitte to investigate the harassment charges leveled by Bose.
Bose, who previously worked with Sequoia Capital India (now Peak XV Partners) before launching Zilingo, had disputed the allegations of accounting discrepancies against her and countered her suspension, terming the company’s action a “witch hunt” and hinting that it was triggered by harassment complaints she had raised against an investor in the firm.
This case has brought to light the challenges faced by women in leadership positions and the need for robust mechanisms to address allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment in the workplace.
