The controversial Stayzilla case took another turn today with a Chennai court dismissing co-founder Yogendra Vasupal's bail plea. The bail was denied by Special Metropolitan Magistrate court for CCB-CBCID cases.
"Since a police custody application is pending, bail cannot be given at this moment," judge MM Kabir said, denying bail to the Stayzilla co-founder who has already been in custody for 9 days. Vasupal's legal team is still considering the next course of action.
Jigsaw Solutions, a media company which used to deal with Stayzilla filed a case against Vasupal under sections 420, 406, and 506(I) of the IPC. After the arrest, a pre-typed blog was published on Medium in which Vasupal describes at length his harassment by politically connected landowners and the police. The story also included a photo of a voodoo doll that had been sent to another co-founder along with a photo of the co-founder's child.
Aditya CS, an executive at Jigsaw, had filed an intervening application against Vasupal's bail plea yesterday. The application challenged Vasupal's contention that investors were in control of Stayzilla.
The startup community has come to Vasupal's aid, making a website to send a letter to the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh. The letter has been signed by prominent names in the industry such as Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal, and Infosys founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.