Bhavish Agarwal’s Ola group has seen its second employee suicide in 5 months.
After 25-year old Ola Krutrim employee Nikhil Somwanshi had committed suicide in May this year, an Ola Electric employee has now also died by suicide. Ola Electric employee K Aravind committed suicide on 28th September, and left behind a 28-page suicide note which alleged harassment by senior management as one of the reasons behind taking the extreme step. The Bengaluru Police has subsequently booked Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and other employees and registered a case of abetment of suicide.
The police have named Subrat Kumar Dash, Head at Vehicle Homologations and Regulations at Ola Electric, Bhavish Aggarwal and others in the FIR under BNS Section 108 (abetment of suicide). K Aravind was employed at Ola Electric as a homologation engineer since 2022.
In his suicide note, Aravind alleged that Dash and Aggarwal were harassing him at work and did not pay the salaries and other incentives which pushed him into depression, eventually leading to death by suicide. “I want the police to take action against them and provide justice to me,” the FIR said.
An FIR was registered by K Aravind’s brother Ashwin Kannan. Kannan says that two days after his brother’s death, an amount of Rs. 17.46 lakh was credited into his brother’s account. “I felt suspicious as such a huge amount was credited to his account. Upon enquiring with Subrat Kumar Dash, he was asked to contact the HR. Upon checking with them, Krithesh Desai, Paramesh and Roshan – all representatives of Ola Electric – came home and explained about the money transactions which were abrupt and did not have any logic. It looked like the company was trying to hide some information,” Kannan said in the FIR.
Ola confirmed that an FIR was recently registered in connection with the matter. The company, however, noted that it has challenged the FIR’s registration before the High Court of Karnataka. According to the filing, “protective orders have been passed in favor of Ola Electric and its officials”. The company also clarified that “no charge sheet has been filed against the company or its officials”. The filing further noted that the employee’s role “did not involve any direct interaction with the company’s top management, including the promoter”. The company affirmed it is “fully cooperating with the authorities” and had “promptly facilitated the full and final settlement” to the deceased’s family.
Second suicide at Ola Group in 5 months
This is the second suicide at the Ola group in the 5 months. On 8th May, Ola Krutrim employee Nikhil Somwanshi had committed suicide. His body was found in Agara Lake in Bengaluru. A viral Reddit post at that point had claimed that Somwanshi had died because of “extreme work pressure”. The anonymous user had alleged that two people had quit the company, leading to all work being pushed on Somwanshi. He claimed working with the manager, especially for freshers, is “traumatic”. Somwanshi had graduated from IISc and had been with Ola Krutrim for 10 months before his demise.