Indian-Origin ex Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose: ‘Never experienced hate at this scale’

Nearly a week after she was fired by Singapore firm Zilingo, Ankiti Bose, who co-founded the commerce startup, has alleged abuse on social media, adding that she has obtained a ‘protection order’ from Singapore courts “against a Twitter user”. The 30-year-old was fired last week as chief executive officer of the Singapore startup over “complaints of serious financial irregularities”, the firm had said; she was suspended by the tech platform on March 31.

In her latest post on Instagram, the Indian-origin former Zilingo CEO has said she has been facing extreme hate on social media since the news broke. “My apps are filled with hate messages and unfounded negative press, and I cannot even bear to unlock my phone without choking up. I have never experienced hate and threats of violence at this scale before.” 

“Today I obtained an Expedited Protection Order from the Singapore Courts against a Twitter user. The last seven days have been extraordinarily difficult. In addition to the dispute playing out publicly (which ought to have been kept private as originally intended), the media attention around Zilingo and myself have made it impossible to focus on what is important,” she said.

Bose has also claimed that her personal chats, photos and documents were circulated without her consent. “My personal photos, chats, documents, records may have all been improperly accessed and circulated without my consent and now I have seen versions on the internet, which are clearly fake but damaging nonetheless. I don’t know who is doing this,” her post on the photo and video sharing network read.

Last week, the Singapore firm – without revealing much details – had said in a statement: “Following an investigation led by an independent forensics firm that was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate Ankiti Bose’s employment with cause, and reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action.”

The firm had reportedly hired Kroll and Deloitte for forensic audit to investigate complaints against Bose.

“I have been suspended for the last 51 days on the basis of an anonymous whistle-blower complaint, and today I am informed that my employment has been terminated inter alia on grounds of ‘insubordination’”.

“I have neither seen the Kroll nor Deloitte reports and not been given sufficient time to produce any documents requested by them. Any report that comes out post my termination would be vitiated as it seems to be instructed by conflicted parties, and we will pursue our rights against this witch-hunt to the full extent of the law. I will be speaking on record shortly with more details about the conflicts of interest in the manner this process was run,” Bose said.

The Singapore firm was founded in 2015 by Bose and Dhruv Kapoor, inspired by the idea that more than 15,000 merchants at Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market could be given a platform to sell their stuff.

(With inputs from PTI)