Mumbai court acquits TVF founder Arunabh Kumar in 2017 sexual harassment case

A Mumbai court acquitted ex-CEO of web comedy channel The Viral Fever, Arunabh Kumar, who was booked following allegations of sexual misconduct in 2017. According to news agency PTI, the court has ruled that there was an ‘unexplained and unreasonable’ delay in filing the First Information Report (FIR) in the matter. Based on the complaint of a former employee, the Andheri police had in 2017 registered a case against Kumar under Indian Penal Code Sections 354 A (causing sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

Kumar, an IIT graduate, founded TVF in 2011.Metropolitan Magistrate (Andheri court) A I Shaikh acquitted Kumar in September this year. A detailed order was available recently.As per the prosecution, the alleged incident took place in 2014. The complaint was filed three years after the incident as the complainant came across other women making similar allegations on social media.The magistrate in his order held that “there is no concrete evidence produced by the prosecution”.“There is material discrepancy and contradiction. There is even unreasonable and unexplained delay in filing the FIR, which raised clouds on the case of the prosecution,” the court said.It can even be said the complaint is “filed out of grudge or rivalry on reason of business” between the accused and the informant, the court further said.All witnesses are “interest witnesses”. They are involved in the same industry where the accused is also doing the business. 

Therefore, the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, the magistrate said. Arunabh Kumar found himself amidst a controversy in March 2017. Over 50 women stepped up to accuse him of sexual harassment after an anonymous Medium post titled The Indian Uber- That is TVF.FIR filed against Kumar on 17 March 2017 on the basis of a 3rd party complaint made by a Mumbai-based lawyer.[citation needed] On March 29, 2017, he was booked for molestation after a woman filed a police complaint in Mumbai.Following this, a second FIR was filed against him while his whereabouts were unknown.On 16 June 2017, Kumar, accused in multiple sexual harassment cases, stepped down as TVF CEO and gave the charge to Dhawal Gusain