On Zilingo Ex-ceo's Plaint, Fir Filed Against Co-founder, Ex-coo | Mumbai News - Times of India

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MUMBAI:

Zilingo

co-founder and former CEO

Ankiti Bose

on Tuesday filed a criminal complaint against fellow co-founder

Dhruv Kapoor

and ex-COO

Aadi Vaidya

, following which local police filed an

FIR

against the duo. Bose pressed charges of cheating, criminal intimidation, conspiracy and harassment. Bose was sacked from the top post in May 2022 by the Singapore-based B2B fashion startup over alleged financial irregularities.

In her six-page complaint, which was reviewed by TOI, Bose alleged that Kapoor and Vaidya misled her and the company's investors in an attempt to gain financial advantages and coerced her into relinquishing her shares and business under false pretences.

This behaviour, Bose said, had been ongoing from April 2020 through 2022.

"As the chief operating officer, Aadi Vaidya engaged in misconduct by falsely attributing loss-making deals to me and extending trade credit to various parties in my name. 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. 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," Bose said, adding that Kapoor and Vaidya chose to be "sneaky and shady" by hiding various company-related data and information.

"This made it extremely difficult to make informed decisions and collaborate effectively. Additionally, both Kapoor and Vaidya intentionally did not attend the Kroll meetings, which further complicated matters for me and disrupted the other team members," Bose said.

Zilingo had appointed Kroll and Deloitte for forensic audit to investigate the complaints received by the company against Bose. Kapoor and Vaidya didn't respond to messages. Law firm Singhania & Co, representing Bose, confirmed the development. Bose, who co-founded Zilingo with Kapoor in 2015, was one of the most celebrated startup founders. Prior to her dismissal as CEO, the board placed her under suspension when it appointed an independent forensics firm to look into the alleged financial irregularities.