Zilingo’s Bose sues Mahesh Murthy for ‘defamatory’ article

Bose in an article accused Murthy of making false allegations, From Vulture Capital to Victim Capital: Mahesh Murthy’s take on VCs in India, published March 1 in Outlook Business magazine. Bose claimed that the article had damaged his “name, reputation and reputation and image”. 820 crores in damages, he has apologized to Murthy.

“The Plaintiff (Bose) states and submits that the defamatory and untrue claims of the Defendant have caused damage to the name, reputation, reputation and image of the Plaintiff in the eyes of the public. However, for the purpose of the present suit, the computation of damages to the Plaintiff does 820 crore,” according to an April 20 filing before the Bombay High Court.

Murthy did not respond to multiple emails, phone calls and messages on Friday.

Once a promising startup, with aspirations of becoming a unicorn, Zilingo entered liquidation this January after failing to recover from the suspension of CEO Bose in March 2022 following an investigation into financial irregularities at the company and his subsequent ouster. Did.

Murthy did not name Bose in the article but made various descriptive allusions. Referring to the founders taking money illegally from their startup, it mentioned “a woman” who “ran a popular fashion portal and took Sequoia’s money”.

“He got his firm to pay his lawyer some 70 crores as fees and – it is rumoured – he got a major chunk of that amount directly back to himself in the form of deductions,” alleged Murthy.

When contacted, Bose said that the description in the article was very specific about him and could not be meant for anyone else.

He said that Murthy also did not respond to legal notices sent to him through various channels to apologize and remove the content, prompting him to file a legal case.

“The fact is that no evidence was produced before me; No report was presented to me. There were just a lot of media statements and a lot of anonymous sources saying things, but nobody (the rest) was saying anything directly on the record,” he said.

Bose said the $100 million was calculated by calculating his remaining equity in Zilingo, among other things, and taking into account “the harm that such statements may inflict on future endeavors”.

Bose also said that his decision to move on and “bury the past” appears to be a mistake as it is now happening “again in several reports”.

This defamation case also serves to make a more specific point.

“There has been a flood of misinformation in the media about me, but it has always been anonymous sources. No one (other) has been very descriptive and specific about me and said it on record. The message I want to make sure It is – and I am saying this on record that – look, this media campaign hurts me. And when people do this, I will take action,” Bose said in an interview with Mint. .