OYO Rooms invalidated the claims of a Bengaluru-based hotelier after he filed an FIR against the company CEO and 6 others on cheating charges alleging that OYO was not paying room rents from past five months.
A complaint was filed on Monday (October 4) against OYO CEO Ritesh Agarwal and others by Betz Fernandez, who owns Roxel Inn at Domlur in the city alleging that the company was not paying the booking amount. According to the complaint, OYO had booked rooms and had agreed to pay Rs 7 lakh per month but has not paid since May and duped him to the tune of Rs 35 lakh.
According to the reports, police have booked Ritesh Agarwal and 6 other office bearers including head of OYO South Rohit Srivastava, heads of business development Madhvendra Kumar and Gourab De, OYO Finance Officers Prateek Agarwal, Manjeet Singh and Mrimony Chakraborty. They have been asked to appear before the investigating officer on November 7.
OYO terms charges as 'false allegations'
However, OYO strongly refuted the claims made in the complaint stating that it has been wrongfully filed against our Founder and six other office bearers, based on false allegations and exaggeration on a regular commercial dispute.
The company in their statement said, "Our lawyers are looking into the matter and will be taking strong legal action as these claims are incorrect and defamatory in nature. OYO Hotels and Homes will initiate appropriate criminal proceedings against the Bengaluru owner who is sensationalising a civil dispute to attract attention.
"On studying a similar matter where an FIR was wrongfully filed in September, the honourable Karnataka High Court while observing that issue was civil in nature, granted an injunction in Bengaluru in that matter. We, therefore, have strong reasons to repose our faith in the justice system. We respect the law of the land and believe it will do the right justice," adds the statement.
In September, a similar case was registered against the OYO founder and two others by another Bengaluru-based hotelier at Whitefield police station. The owner of Rajguru Shelter Hotels in Brookefield, Natarajan had claimed that Ritesh Agarwal and two of his representatives in Bengaluru, Anand Reddy and Prathik Singh, had cheated him to the tune of Rs 1 crore.
