At a time when Snapdeal is struggling with a cash crunch and is awaiting its fate in the Flipkart-Snapdeal deal, a Bengaluru-based apparel-seller Rajdhani Cotton has filed a complaint with Delhi Police against Jasper Infotech Private Limited, which runs e-commerce firm Snapdeal, for alleged non-payment of dues to the tune of Rs 67.6 lakh. The complaint has also been filed against founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal as per a PTI report.
Rajat Gupta, promoter of Rajshani Cotton told PTI that Snapdeal has fraudulently withheld payments. “We have lodged a complaint with Delhi police to look into a matter of cheating and breach of trust. Snapdeal owes us Rs 67.6 lakh for business transactions between April 2014 and April 2016,” he added.
The Delhi Police has filed a case against Jasper and its founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, under IPC sections 406 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120B (criminal conspiracy), the counsel for Rajdhani Cottons Aditya Parolia told PTI.
Additionally, the case has also been lodged under section 120 of the Companies Act, 2013, where companies are supposed to keep accounts for eight years, he said.
"It is the responsibility of Snapdeal to keep the accounts with them, which they have not done. This is the reason why they cannot consolidate the payments which are to be made to vendors. Whenever we go and ask them for payments, they on the contrary ask us to produce the accounts for payments," Rajhdani Cottons’ counsel told PTI.
Responding to the matter to PTI, Snapdeal has said that the company will deal with the issue as per the contractual terms of the agreement and as per established process of law. Snapdeal had offered to pay the amount due to Rajdhani Cottons as per the working shared by the company with the seller.
The Snapdeal spokesperson added that the seller was claiming a higher amount than due and is not willing to or unable to provide documents required to back his claim. Instead, he is resorting to complaints and notices over the past months.
This comes after Snapdeal’s executives including Kunal Bahl were summoned by Bengaluru metropolitan court for allegedly violating a financial contract and not paying Dreams Event that runs Bengaluru Fashion Week.
And the issue of non-payment of dues is not new to Snapdeal either. In February, the All India Online Vendor Association (AIOVA) wrote to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claiming that Snapdeal has held Rs 300-400 crore in the form of outstanding dues and goods in transit/refunds.
Snapdeal had called in some seller associations in March to resolve this issue, but no definite resolution has happened yet.