Employees threaten suicide in emails to AskMe CMD Sanjiv Gupta

Chaitanya Gudipaty & Shreshth Sahamoneycontrol.comDisgruntled and disheartened employees of AskMeBazaar who have been pushed to the wall have formed WhatsApp groups and are threatening suicide to top management of AskMeBazaar if their salary dues are not cleared.“So I have reached to a point where in I will myself after 5 days if no communication is made from your side on grounds of our salary. And all including management of getit, Astro and Sanjiv Gupta will held responsible for this. This is not like threatening if. I do not get the salary then ur most welcome on funeral,” (sic) read one such email reviewed by moneycontrol.com.The reviewed emails were marked by employees named Amar Rupak and Arun P to top management, including the Human Resources head Rajat Narain and Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Gupta.On August 17, employees of AskMeBazaar were advised to start working from home.When the employees pressurized the company and the HR for payslips, they were answered with a mail that had the contact details of Board of Directors and the people were told to take the salary directly from them. The management also asked employees to write directly to investors asking them for their salaries.The employees explain that their salary is the only source of sustaining their families, paying rents and other expenditure. “It has been more than 70 days now and yet our salary is not credited. Do you have a sense of what we all go through. Every single day is hard on survival. We have tried all the ways to communicate to the management and yet and yet no action taken which has forced me to take this action which will destroy me and my family completely,” (sic) reads one of the emails.They stress the importance of salaries for survival and threaten to commit suicide if their dues are not paid. “This is not like threatening. If I do not get the salary then ur most welcome on funeral,” reads a line from one of the emails by Arun P to CMD Sanjiv Gupta. “Communication missing”According to reports, there is a constant struggle for communication and clarity amongst the employees of AskMeBazaar. The alleged non-payment of dues and salary has ignited a sense of discourse in the beliefs of the corporate structure.“Adding to the woes of the employees is the fact that there are no cases filed in court in the interest of the employees. Director Sanjiv Gupta has filed a case in the High Court for his stake in the company, not taking any initiative of stand for the employees. Same is the case filed by the ex-chairman of AskMeBazaar. The people in position to act during this crisis are focused on their personal agendas overlooking the bigger picture”, says an employee of AskMeBazaar.Political intervention soughtBesides repeated staff complaints, voices regarding the plight of employees have been raised in political circles too. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy sought the intervention of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). He had asked the government to consider purchasing the 98.5 percent stake Malaysia’s Astro Overseas has in AskMe.Also read:Sanjiv Gupta mismanaged AskMe, missed performance targets: Astro'Am no longer an employee, have quit': AskMeBazaar CEO With no management, employees can’t even resign or get fired! In dire straits: Employees threaten suicide in emails to CMD AskMe scaled too fast and ran out of money 'I might have to sell my house to pay debt': AskMe seller