Arunabh Kumar, CEO, The Viral Fever has been under the radar ever since a woman, under the pseudonym, Indian Fowler, accused him of sexual harassment through her post on Medium. The woman, who claims to be an ex employee of the company, alleged that Arunabh molested and harassed her for months.

In her post, she recalled the several instances where Arunabh would ask for sexual favours, make uncouth remarks, or behave inappropriately. Throughout all the mental and physical torture, the woman in question could not quit as she was bound by a legal contract. He colleagues did not support her either, she wrote.

Her revelation was followed by several other women coming forward to speak about their unpleasant encounter with Arunabh. However, the CEO has labelled all the accusations against him as baseless, and also asked Medium to take down the post as the accusations are false.  Speaking to MumbaiMirror, Arunabh cleared his stand saying:

The kind of insinuations the FB post makes are untrue. 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? Having said that, I am very particular about my behavior – I will approach a woman, but never force myself.

Further, TVF reportedly denied having any female employee from Muzaffarpur in the last 3 years. Arunabh also said that he would request the woman making these allegations to either report the matter to the police or to the HR team at TVF where she allegedly worked. He told MumbaiMirror:

I unconditionally and unequivocally deny all these allegations. Social media has already declared me an offender, but I am ready to address all the allegations against me. I am open to receiving a police complaint so that I can respond legally as well. TVF is bigger than me and if there is a remote chance that I have done any wrong, let me be persecuted.

Biswapati Sarkar, the creative director at TVF dismissed the allegations against Arunabh with the following tweets:

Nidhi Bisht, a known face on the Indian web series scene, and writer-director at TVF wrote:

Stand up comedienne Aditi Mittal was outraged at the news and rebuked the industry:

All India Bakchod (AIB) founders, however, spoke about the need for organisations to educate their employees about the ways to deal with such a situation:

Sorabh Pant, founder, East India Comedy, wrote: