Just as we were trying to wrap our heads around TVF’s CEO, Arunabh Kumar‘s molestation allegations, news broke that ScoopWhoop‘s co-founder, Suparn Pandey has been accused on similar grounds.
According to Catch News, Suparn has been accused of sexual harassment across a span of almost two years. The complainant, a former senior executive of ScoopWhoop Media Pvt. Ltd., has also accused other co-founders, Sattvik Mishra and Sriparna Tikekar, of abetting the harassment, and attempting to sweep it under the carpet.
The complainant also said that Pandey continued harassing her as the company failed to take any action against him. He would get uncomfortably close to her also allegedly send her lewd messages and videos. She also claims she was intimidated by the co-founders of the company, who threatened to defame her and ruin her career, leading her to quit.
This is definitely shocking as ScoopWhoop is known for its progressive content and has often advocated for women empowerment especially through their feminist webzine, Vagabomb.
Here is ScoopWhoop’s official statement against the allegations against their co-founder:
ScoopWhoop strongly condemns any kind of harassment at the workplace. We work towards ensuring a safe and secure workplace for all our employees and take any complaints of harassment extremely seriously.
In line with workplace laws, ScoopWhoop has an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). The ICC constitutes of three of our most senior and experienced women employees and an independent observer who has served on ICC panels across various prestigious and international companies. 40 percent of our workforce is women and we have equal representation in senior leadership positions. We have taken every step to ensure the complainant gets a fair hearing and are following the rule book on workplace harassment.
The complaint was forwarded to the ICC immediately on receipt and the same is being inquired as per law. The company is adhering to the rules and regulations set forth by the Hon. Supreme Court of India and the law of the land against sexual harassment at workplace and the investigation is ongoing. As an FIR has also been filed separately by the complainant, and the police investigation is ongoing, we are extending full cooperation to the police to conduct a full and fair investigation into the matter.
We are fully prepared to accept the findings of the investigations and dutifully take the necessary action if found guilty.