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After Explosive Facebook Post Accusing His Wife Of Infidelity, ShopClues Co-Founder Sandeep Aggarwal Now On A Damage Control Mission

Love, sex aur dhoka?
Employees of Shopclues.com, an online marketplace, work inside their office in Gurgaon.
Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters
Employees of Shopclues.com, an online marketplace, work inside their office in Gurgaon.

An explosive meltdown on Facebook, a barrage of accusations followed by a contrite formal statement from the company — the twists and turns in the dramatic backstory of a Gurgaon-based startup's shift of power had social media hooked over the past few days. The public tiff between Radhika and Sandeep Aggarwal, the couple who founded ShopClues, seems like the beginning of a long fight for control of the e-commerce company.

On Monday, an angry Aggarwal took to Facebook to vent. He alleged that his wife was having an illicit affair with her "boss". While Aggarwal didn't take any names, speculation is rife that the affair is with Sanjay Sethi, the current CEO and co-founder of ShopClues.

The former CEO of ShopClues accused his wife Radhika and her 'boss' of illegally ousting him from the company and changing the voting rights while he was away in the US. Aggarwal is currently the CEO of the online marketplace Droom.

In a post, he accused the duo of, "... intentionally and deliberately kicking out two other founding team members by collaborating with the current co-founder, (and) calling themselves (Radhika and Sethi) founders now. Changing web history, tempering (sic) with Wikipedia and lying in the press, 'my co-founder and I founded the company and my husband also joined the company'. These are the lies, gross exaggerations and cheap attempts to mislead the whole world, yourself and generations to come," he wrote.

He also wrote that the current leaders are incapable of running the company, taking a dig at his wife.

"Stay home mom for six years and prior to that only 18 months as entry level business analyst and straight away getting vice-president's job from once husband," he wrote.

Radhika said that she was disturbed by her husband's outburst.

Later, however, Aggarwal's company issued a statement: "While he [Aggarwal] stands by each and every word, he regrets having used the social media to express such an emotional outburst," it said. Aggarwal has however reportedly filed a defamation case against the co-founders of ShopClues in the Delhi court.

Meanwhile, ShopClues issued a statement saying it was disappointed to see an ex-founder using a public forum to air personal grudges. "It is very disappointing to see an ex-founder, who disassociated from the company for his criminal wrongdoings, is now engaged in a personal vendetta on a public forum," the company said in a statement.

"Our goal is to create value for all stakeholders and we remain focused on working closely with Radhika & Sanjay and the management team to continue to scale the company as it captures the massive opportunity which lies ahead of us," the board said in a statement, in a clear indication that it is standing by Radhika and Sethi.

The e-commerce company was founded in 2011 by Radhika and Sanjay, along with Sethi. Two years later, Aggarwal was arrested in the US over allegations of insider trading during his previous job as an analyst at Collins Stewart. Aggarwal left the company and subsequently started Droom, a marketplace dealing in automobiles.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.