After a viral anonymous blog post on Medium accused Arunabh Kumar, the founder of The Viral Fever, several women came up with allegations of sexual harassment against him. While TVF has denied the allegations against Kumar, the sheer number of testimonies has landed him in trouble. With the episode blowing up larger every day, the TVF CEO has finally broken his silence on the case.
Arunabh Kumar, 35, has rubbished all allegations against him and has called them “fake”. Earlier on Sunday, a blog post, allegedly by a former TVF employee, accused him of molestation back. The author of the post titled The Indian Uber – That Is TVF alleged that Kumar had made several sexual advances towards her ever since she joined TVF in 2014. “I walk up. He says it’s time we do a quickie. I am stunned. And I told him I will go to the police. He said: `Police to meri pocket me hai’,” she wrote. TVF immediately declared these allegations false, however, the web-based production house was brought into question once several other females recounted their tales of sexual harassment.
ALSO READ: TVF denies sexual harassment allegations in viral blog against CEO Arunabh Kumar
A filmmaker named Reema Sengupta took to Facebook to tell a similar story as the blog held. According to her Facebook post, Sengupta had worked on a shoot with Kumar where he inappropriately touched her. “As I talk, he finds some lame excuse to place his hand on my hand (which was on the table in his glass cabin). In the middle of the shoot, he touches my shoulder tattoo and tells me he finds it sexy. After every other shot, he would come over to the monitor to see how the shot looks, but at the same time graze his hand against my waist,” she wrote.
While speaking to the Mumbai Mirror, Kumar stated that The Viral Fever hasn’t hired anyone from Muzaffarpur (the blogger claimed to be from the Bihar city) in the last three years. Upon TVF’s request, Medium will check the authenticity of the blog following which, they will decide whether it should be taken down.
He even stated his reply to Sengupta’s Facebook post, he said, “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 behaviour – I will approach a woman, but never force myself.”
5 yrs at TVF & no memory of who this Female employee is. It’s a baseless fictitious allegation. Haters pls don’t stoop down to this level 🙁
— Nidhi NEETU Bisht (@EkThapaTiger) March 13, 2017
Kumar stated that he “unconditionally and unequivocally” denies all of these allegations. “Social media has already declared me an offender, but I am ready to address all the allegations against me,” he said. He added, “TVF is bigger than me and if there is a remote chance that I have done any wrong, let me be persecuted.”
Another former TVF employee, Aayushi Aggarwal, stood up against the organisation claiming to have experienced sexual harassment in their office. “I hope things have worked out for you. It (TVF) is indeed no place for a woman. I would never recommend anybody to work there,” she wrote.
The Viral Fever came under fire from several other people including comedian Aditi Mittal and Aligarh writer Apurva Asrani.
Sharing this because I know another girl who went through the same ordeal recently. #TVF #ArunabhKumar https://t.co/iAw5WWLu3c
— Apurva Asrani (@Apurvasrani) March 13, 2017
In a reply to TVF’s Amit Gulani, who like many others questioned the authenticity of the allegations, Aditi Mittal wrote, “Amit, why are there more than 9 women/young girls with this claim? How is everyone coming out to tell a concerted lie AT THE SAME TIME?”
Amit, why are there more than 9 women/young girls with this claim? How is everyone coming out to tell a concerted lie AT THE SAME TIME? https://t.co/mgWIzhWCBe
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) March 13, 2017
These are women who have come forward w/FULL risk of never getting a job in this industry again/having this follow them arnd for a long time
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) March 13, 2017
They wanted to work, do fun, amazing things in comedy, how is it fair to them to first suffer in silence &then get slammed for speaking out?
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) March 13, 2017
Silence from the comedy community is deafening.EVERYONE still”texting contacts”/”verifying facts” inspite of hearing stories abt it for yrs?
— Aditi Mittal (@awryaditi) March 13, 2017
