OYO Founder, Six Others Booked For Allegedly Duping A Hotelier Of Rs 35 Lakh

A hotelier has filed a complaint against the founder and CEO of OYO Hotels and Homes Ritesh Agarwal and six others in Bengaluru for allegedly not paying rent amounting to over Rs 35 lakh on the rooms rented for past five months, reports Business Today.

The complainant, named Betz Fernandez, has alleged that as per the agreement between the two parties, OYO had booked rooms at his Hotel named Roxel Inn in Domlur and agreed to pay Rs 7 lakh per month.

However, since May OYO did not pay him any rent thereby duping him to the tune of Rs 35 lakh, he alleged.

Besides Ritesh Agarwal, police have booked Rohit Srivastava, head of OYO South, heads of business development Madhvendra Kumar and Gourab De, OYO Finance Officers Prateek Agarwal, Manjeet Singh, and Mrimony Chakraborty.

Responding to the matter, OYO released a statement asserting that Fernandez is “using improper means to sensationalise a civil dispute and garner attention” out of it. The company's statement also read that its lawyers were looking into the matter to take a strong legal action against the complaint as the claims were “incorrect” and defamatory.