Abetment to suicide case: Karnataka HC asks Ola founder Bhavish Agarwal, staff to cooperate in investigation

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday asked Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and MD of Ola Electric Technologies Private Limited and Subrat Kumar Das, Head of Homologation Engineering to co-operate in the investigation against them in a criminal case registered for abetment to suicide of K Aravind, one of the engineers of the company.

Justice Mohammad Nawaz also extended till November 17 the interim protection, directing the police not to harass the petitioners in the guise of investigation.

The court was hearing the petition challenging the FIR registered by the Subramanyapura police in connection with the death of K Aravind, an employee with the Ola. The FIR was for offence under section 108 of BNS based on the complaint by Ashwin Kannan, brother of the deceased employee K Aravind.

During the hearing, senior advocate MS Shyamsundar, appearing for the petitioners, claimed that the death note/suicide note by the deceased is not true. He said the note may be narrated by the complainant in the case, the brother of the deceased. It was further claimed that the interviews and photographs of the death circulated by the complainant had adversely affected the company’s image and business, with share prices crashing and leading to exodus of the employees.

On the other hand, P Prasanna Kumar, counsel for the complainant, said that the company (Ola Electric Technologies Private Limited) is worse than the East India company. “They (petitioners) cannot make such allegations against the complainant. Let the police investigate as to who has written it (suicide note),” he said.

Meanwhile, Additional State Public Prosecutor BN Jagadeesh submitted that the petitioners are only sending letters when police issued notices requiring their appearance for the investigation. The court asked the petitioners to cooperate with the investigation.

“There is already a direction of this court, that is, not to harass the petitioners in the guise of investigation. That direction shall continue. The petitioners shall cooperate with the investigation of the case. If any final report against the petitioners is filed, the same can be challenged also,” the court said.