There seems to be no end to legal battles for Homestays startup Stayzilla. Five months after co-founder Yogendra Vasupal was granted bail by Madras High Court, the company is now contesting a petition filed by vendor Jig Saw at the Chennai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to dissolve the company.
To bring things into perspective, Stayzilla suspended operations on February 24, claiming that it will restructure itself and reboot operations. Following this, Aditya CS of Jig Saw claimed that the company did not pay him his dues to the tune of Rs 1.7 crore since January 2016 and filed a case against Vasupal and CFO Sachit Singhi.
Vasupal was then arrested on March 14. The night before his arrest, Vasupal had also put out a blog saying he was being harassed by his landlord and by Jig Saw Solutions. Voodoo dolls were allegedly sent to the CFO's house.
Jig Saw has now filed a petition requesting for initiation of corporate insolvency as an operational creditor under section 9 of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code 2016 against Inasra Technologies, the parent of Stayzilla.
The hearing, which was to happen on Thursday, has now been adjourned to September 12.
Yogendra Vasuapl and Aditya CS declined to comment as the matter is sub judice with NCLT.
The battle, which started with Vasuapl’s arrest and his claims of being harassed by Aditya, got ugly after Aditya publicly put out what he claimed was proof that the company owed him Rs 1.7 crore.
After Vasupal received bail, he then furnished proof of Aditya cheating them with photoshopped pictures as proof of delivery for Stayzilla’s advertising campaign.
In an interview with The News Minute in April, Vasupal had said that once the court proceedings are done, he plans on bringing Stayzilla back as a B2B player.
“…I’m confident I will be able to start off again as a B2B player for hosts, focusing only on the host-side problems and enabling them to sell across all other platforms,” he had said.