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Stayzilla CEO arrested on fraud charges, co-founder gets threats to child's life

  • Stayzilla had announced to reboot operations in February. 
  • The CEO and founder has now been remanded to police custody.
  • Vendors have complained of non-payment of dues. 
Stayzilla in trouble
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First Published Mar 15, 2017, 6:25 AM IST

“These startups get funding, they spend carelessly, they live a hunky-dory life and keep our payments on hold, and then shut shop saying we don’t have money. People doing genuine business like us have to bear the brunt,” he further told the news site. 

 

Chennai-based startup Stayzilla is in trouble. A blog written by co-founder and CEO Yogendra Vasupal is a shout out to the startup community and investors for help. The blogpost talks about abuse by the landlord, issue related to non-payment of dues and threats to co-founder's child. Vasupal is now in police custody on complaint of non-payment of dues by the vendors.

 

Vasupal is in the custody of Chennai police commissioner as Jigsaw Advertising has filed a fraud complaint against the company. He has been arrested for pending dues worth ₹1.7 crore.

Stayzilla in trouble

The situation came to light when an email from co-founder Sachit Singhi asking help from investors was made public. It was written to Nexus Venture Partners and Matrix Partners.

 

In the blogpost, Vasupal has written about two cases - one with the landlord and another with the media agency. Stayzilla had rented the office and it was only after the shutting down of the company and planning for contingency that the disputes began. The video below shows a man assaulting the staff at Stayzilla. 

 

This video was posted in the blog:

 

Another dispute was with Jigsaw Advertising, whom Stayzilla had already paid 6.5 crore. Singhi has been receiving threats. the blogpost says that Sachit got some scary doll delivered to his home on 9 March with the image of his son. The blogpost also reveals some phone conversations, which were again threats.