The Madras High Court today stayed all further proceedings against online homestay aggregator Stayzilla for allegedly failing to make payments due to an advertisement company and defrauding it of Rs 1.69 crore. Judge M S Ramesh granted Stayzilla interim relief till January 22, on a plea by its founders Yogendra Vasupal and Sachit Singhi, who had urged the judge to quash the case pending in a special court of central crime branch (CCB) here.

The criminal proceedings were initiated against them on a complaint from C S Aditya of Jigsaw Advertising and Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Aditya alleged that Stayzilla failed to make payments for services rendered since February 2016 and defrauded him of Rs 1.69 crore.

A case was registered by CCB against the founders for criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal intimidation. When the plea came up for hearing, the judge said since the dispute was civil in nature, laying of chargesheet may not be proper. This aspect requires further deliberations, he added.

On April 27, the high court had granted conditional anticipatory bail to Singhi. Vasupal was arrested on March 14 while Singhi, stated to be absconding, had moved the court for anticipatory bail.

The high court had later granted bail to Vasupal on the condition that he furnish a personal bond of Rs 40 lakh. Earlier, Principal Sessions Judge Nazeema Banu had on April 20 denied anticipatory bail to Singhi.

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