Senior Ola executives face harassment complaint after engineer’s death, challenges FIR in court

According to the complaint, the deceased, K Aravind, had been working as a homologation engineer at Ola Electric’s Koramangala office since 2022

Bengaluru police have registered a complaint against Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and the company’s head of homologation engineering, Subrat Kumar Dash, after a 38-year-old engineer allegedly died by suicide at his Bengaluru residence on September 28.

According to the complaint filed at Bengaluru’s Subramanyapura police station, the deceased, K Aravind, had been working as a homologation engineer at Ola Electric’s Koramangala office since 2022.

Ola, however, said it has challenged the registration of the FIR before the Karnataka High Court and protective orders have been passed in favour of Ola Electric and its officials.

According to the police complaint, on the morning of September 28, Aravind allegedly attempted suicide by consuming poison at his home in Chikkalasandra. He was rushed by friends to a private hospital, where he died during treatment around 12:45pm.

The complainant, Aravind’s brother, further told police that a 28-page handwritten death note was found in his room, in which Aravind allegedly mentioned being harassed by his superiors at the company over unpaid salary and allowances.

Responding to the allegations, an Ola spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened by the unfortunate demise of our colleague, Aravind, and our thoughts remain with his family during this difficult time.”

“Aravind had been associated with Ola Electric for over three and a half years and was based at our headquarters in Bangalore. During his tenure, Aravind never raised any complaint or grievance regarding his employment or any harassment. His role also did not involve any direct interaction with the company’s top management, including the promoter,” the Ola spokesperson said in an emailed response to a query.

However, the complainant alleged that two days after Aravind’s death, a sum of Rs 17.46 lakh was transferred to his bank account on September 30, which the family found suspicious. When questioned about the transaction, the company’s HR personnel reportedly gave 'vague information,' and later, company representatives visited the family, which the complainant interpreted as an attempt to conceal facts.

The complainant has accused Aggarwal and Das of causing mental harassment that allegedly drove his brother to suicide and has urged the police to take legal action against those responsible.