Bangalore: A cheating case has been registered against OYO Hotels & Homes founder Ritesh Agarwal and six others based on a complaint by a hotelier who has alleged that the firm did not pay rent for rooms for the past five months, police said, Monday.
In his complaint, Betz Fernandez, who owns Roxel Inn at Domlur locality here, stated that OYO had booked rooms and had agreed to pay Rs 7,00,000 per month.
However, since May OYO did not pay Fernandez any rent thereby duping him to the tune of Rs 35 lakh, alleged the complainant.
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. All have been asked to appear before the investigating officer Thursday, police said.
OYO Hotels & Homes said in a statement that they will file a counter complaint against the hotel owner for ‘using improper legal means to sensationalise a civil dispute and get attention’.
“Our lawyers are looking into the matter and will be taking strong legal action as these claims are incorrect and defamatory in nature,” the company said in a statement.
Appropriate criminal proceedings will be initiated against the owner. We at all times follow the laws of the land and operate keeping in mind the best interests of our asset owners, customers and employees,” it added.
PTI