A Chennai court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of homestay aggregator Stayzilla’s co-founder Yogendra Vasupal, who was arrested on defrauding charges, PTI reported. The court also sent him to a day’s custody with the Central Crime Branch police.
In his bail plea, Vasupal had claimed that he was only an employee at Inasra Technologies, which runs Stayzilla, reported The Hindu BusinessLine. The charges against him were “foisted”, he said adding that since the matter was a “civil dispute”, he was not personally liable and that he should be allowed bail.
Justice MM Kabir, special judge for Central Crime Branch cases, said the custody petition filed by the police had been pending with the court, which prevents him from being released on bail, The Times of India reported.
The police took Vasupal into custody on March 14 after a complaint from advertising agency Jigsaw said he owed the firm dues worth Rs 1.72 crore. Vasupal’s partner Sachit Singhi has yet to be arrested. Charges of criminal intimidation, breach of trust were invoked against the two.
On the day of his arrest, Vasupal had accused Jigsaw Advertising of harassment and intimidation. In a blog post, he had alleged that the dispute with Jigsaw resulted from the ad agency’s “severe deficiency of services”, despite having been paid around Rs 6.5 crore. Singh had said that the advertising agency had sought the influence of a local MLA.
Stayzilla had shut down its operations in February. Vasupal had said the company was not able to sustain its current model for several reasons, including the overall cost of doing business in India.
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