TVF CEO Arunabh Kumar named in second FIR; more complainants expected to step forward

A second FIR has been filed against TVF CEO Arunabh Kumar in the sexual harassment case.

The complainant — a former staffer who was employed at TVF until a year ago — registered her statement with the Versova Police. The allegations she has levelled against Kumar are similar to those of the previous complainant , a writer-director who stepped forward on 29 March to register an FIR against the TVF founder for allegedly touching her inappropriately.

In an article about the first complainant, Indian Express reported that  the Mumbai Police has issued a summons for Kumar. “Based on the complaint of a victim, a case under Section 354 (A) and 509 of the IPC has been registered,” an official of the Mumbai Police said.

However, on Thursday, 30 March, it was reported that Kumar was “untraceable” to the police.

A police official told Hindustan Times that they couldn’t find him Kumar. A senior police official said, “It is a non-bailable offence and we will definitely be opposing his bail plea. We want to arrest him.”

How the case unfolded

The controversy broke when a blog post published on Medium under the moniker “Indian Fowler” (a nod to the viral post by Susan Fowler that highlighted the “toxic” work culture at Uber that had apparently led to a steady decrease in its number of female employees), believed to be written by a former TVF employee, levelled sexual harassment charges against Arunabh Kumar.

In the blog post, Indian Fowler wrote about how, during her three years with the company (she was under a contract), Kumar repeatedly made sexual advances towards her.

More women come forward

While TVF was quick to rubbish the claims of Indian Fowler, stating that no employee seemingly matching the description provided by the blogger ever worked at the company, other women stepped forward, saying they had similar stories to share of Kumar’s untoward behaviour.

These accusations were made on social media — meaning that the police could not take cognisance of them. Mumbai-based lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui then filed a third-person first information report  in the case.

The two FIRs present a complete reversal of developments for Kumar — on just 29 March, it was reported that the case against him would be closed by the police as no one had stepped forward to register a formal complaint with them even 10 days after Siddiqui’s third-person report.

More FIRs expected

Meanwhile, according to a Mumbai Mirror report , at least four more complainants are expected to step forward in the days to come. In its edition dated 31 March 2017, Mirror has published an interview with an individual who describes himself as a “corporate and government insider” and goes by the moniker “Corporate Kumar” on Twitter. It was this individual who forwarded the original blog post by Indian Fowler to members of the press. Corporate Kumar has told Mirror that he/she has verified the complaints of 11 women. Corporate Kumar further claimed that while there was conjecture around Arunabh Kumar’s whereabouts (including some rumours that stated he had returned to his hometown of Muzzafarpur in Bihar), sources in the know had placed the TVF CEO in Goa.