'Faced mental torture, denied salary and allowances'; Ola engineer's suicide sparks debate, probe ongoing

BENGALURU: The police registered a case against two people, including company founder Bhavish Aggarwal, in connection with the suicide of an engineer at Ola Electric. K. Aravind (38), who had been working as a homologation engineer at Ola since 2022, was found dead after consuming poison at his residence in Chikkalasandra, Bengaluru, on September 28. Despite being rushed immediately to the hospital, Aravind’s life could not be saved.

Meanwhile, Aravind's brother received a 28-page suicide note. In it, Aravind made serious allegations against Bhavish Aggarwal and Ola top employee Subrat Kumar Das. The note states that both of them mentally tortured and denied him salary and allowances. Aravind, in that note, mentioned that he was left with no option but to end life rather than reel in mental agony.

The police, which initially registered a case of unnatural death, later filed a case against Bhavish and Subrat on October 6 on the complaint of Aravind's brother. Meanwhile, the brother of Aravind raised suspicion over Rs 17,46,313 being credited to the account of Aravind just two days after his death. Aravind's family demanded arrest and strong action against the company heads.

Ola Electric has approached the Karnataka High Court over the suicide of Aravind. The petition challenged the FIR charged against the company for abetment of suicide. The company claims that Aravind never complained of facing any difficulty at work. The company said that protection orders have been passed on to Ola Electric and its employees and money has been sent to his bank account to support his family.