On 29 March, 2017, an FIR was filed by a victim who accused The Viral Fever (TVF) CEO and founder Arunabh Kumar of sexual harassment. Just one day before this complaint was lodged, the Mumbai Police said that it would be closing the investigation case, citing the reason that no victims had come forward thus far, and that complaints on social media cannot be considered.

Now, Indian Express reports that the Mumbai Police has summoned Kumar. “Based on the complaint of a victim, a case under Section 354 (A) and 509 of the IPC has been registered… against Arunabh Kumar,” Mumbai Police said.

A police official has told Hindustan Times that they are trying to search for him but they can’t find him. 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.”

Meanwhile, the emergence of similar accounts of harassment by Kumar on social media, coupled with the news that the case would be dropped led to a debate which featured a multiplicity of opinions.

Following is the series of events that took place:

The ex-employee, a Delhi University graduate, who chose to keep her identity hidden, alleged in the blog that just after 21 days of joining the company, Kumar started to harass her.

She also claimed that when she reported it to the higher authorities within the organisation, he shrugged off the complaint and said that these things happen.

After the blog surfaced, two more women reported similar harassment while working for the company. Aayushi Agarwal, a former employee, wrote in the comments section of the blog that she had had a similar experience at TVF.

TVF’s initial response towards the whole controversy was a knee-jerk reaction. The digital firm had then said, “Yes, there have been allegations of misbehaviour against our founder, from several women.  When the first blog appeared on March 12, it shocked all of us including our extended set of associates. The allegations were severe. We were confused and taken aback. The blog alleged that he/she was an employee with the organization and even indicated specific content production they were a part of. We immediately began checking the facts internally.  We did send out an instant response, which may have been a bit too quick and emotional.  We recognise that we should have handled that response better. However, it is a fact that we have found no records of any such person on our pay roll, in that given time period, as described in the blog.”

TVF also issued a statement previously stating that it is investigating other allegations and has informed that it has in place an Internal Complaints Committee in each location to look into sexual harassment complaints by employees.TVF has about 240 employees and has offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

“Even as we were dealing with the first episode, several other allegations surfaced soon thereafter.  Please know that we are sincerely looking into each one of them. We are committed to getting to the bottom of these allegations,” TVF had said then.

When asked about the incident after the charges surfaced, Arunabh Kumar refuted the allegation, in one of his interview he said, “I am a heterosexual, single man and when I find a woman sexy, I tell her she’s sexy. I compliment women. Is that wrong?”.

Meanwhile, a Mumbai-based  lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui also filed a third party FIR against Arunabh Kumar as the women who have alleged harassment did not do it before.

“In these kind of cases not a lot of women want to come forward and take any kind of action because they are so scared and worried about their name and reputation… So I also came forward,” said Siddiqui after lodging the FIR.

Some felt that Arunabh Kumar had suffered as a consequence of the blog written by Indian Fowler, others predicted that no victims would come forward and still others criticised the victims for making workplace harassment a more problematic issue. There were a significant number of people calling the complainants liars.

Arunabh Kumar’s personal Facebook account is populated by posts where he has been tagged by people either criticising him or supporting and protecting him. Kumar has neither responded to any of these posts, nor has he deleted them or untagged himself.