TVF's Arunabh Kumar in trouble; booked for molestation in Mumbai: Here is what all happened

The Viral Fever's founder and CEO, Arunabh Kumar who has been booked under molestation charges as the victim filed a complaint in Mumbai on Wednesday, has been summoned by the police to record statement, reports DNA.

He has been booked under sections 354 (molestation) and 509 (threatening).

Earlier this month, in a blog on Medium.com titled 'The Indian Uber - That is TVF', a 'former employee' (it cannot be independently verified) of the company with the username 'Indian Fowler' blamed him for sexual harassment.

However, he had denied the charges after several women also accused him for the same behaviour.

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.

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"I felt exploited and cheated and I left my job under very bad circumstances. I hope things have worked out for you. It is, indeed, no place for a woman. I would never recommend anybody to work there," Agarwal wrote. However, it is not clear whether she is blaming Kumar as she has not named anyone in her comment.

Another woman, Reema Sengupta, published a post on Facebook on Monday, in which she said that Indian Fowler isn't the only girl he (Kumar) has been a sleaze to. She alleged that Kumar has sexually harassed her during a 5-hour shoot she was directing for TVF, but she refrained from formally complaining about it at the time because it would have affected the agency she was working with and the client.

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.