Almost a month after Stayzilla’s shutdown, the founder of the company Yogendra Vasupal has been taken into police custody over allegations of non-payment of dues, according to this TOI report. However, Vasupal, in a Medium post, retracted allegations stating that he and his colleagues were threatened by his landlord and that the PR agency has framed charges against him. While shuttering operations last month, Vasupal said in a statement that the company would “reboot” operations with a different business model. The company initially began operations in 2007 as budget hotel aggregator and later moved on to offer homestays, which was launched in late 2015. The TOI report mentioned that Stayzilla defaulted in paying out Rs 1.72 crore to Jigsaw Advertising, a PR company based out of Chennai and that the founder Vasupal “confessed” to have committed fraud. Stayzilla’s COO Rupal Yogendra, however, denied the report stating that Vasupal was arrested after the complainant used money and political influence. “Now after the inappropriate article by Times of India, wondering if it has anything to do with Jig Saw Solution and Advertising owner, Mr.Aditya C.S’s dad being a part of the press and wielding his influence there also,” Rupal added. Vasupal mentioned in the Medium post that Jigsaw’s services were ‘deficient’. “The company (Stayzilla) had a dispute over deficiency of services” provided by Jigsaw, Vasupal said, adding that the matter was later taken up legally. Aditya CS, owner of Jigsaw advertising claimed that Vasupal’s claims are false and that Stayzilla never informed it about…
