Twenty-eight days after Stayzilla CEO and co-founder Yogendra Vasupal was arrested on charges of fraud and non-payment of dues, he was granted bail by the Madras High Court on Tuesday. He has also been asked to deposit Rs 40 lakh as surety.

Judge S Baskaran has also ordered Vasupal to appear before the Investigating Officer at 10am every day until further orders.

This comes after Vasupal’s bail plea was dismissed twice – once by the principal session court, Chennai on March 28 and by a special magistrate court in Chennai on March 23. 

Yogendra Vasupal was arrested on March 14 after his vendor Jig Saw advertising filed a complaint for cheating and nonpayments of dues to the tune of nearly Rs 1.7 crore.

Vasupal was arrested for offences under sections 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating), 506 (i) (Criminal Intimidation) of the IPC.

Stayzilla suspended operations on February 24, claiming that it will restructure itself and reboot operations. Following this, Aditya CS of Jig Saw claimed that the company did not pay him his dues since January 2016 and filed a case against Vasupal and CFO Sachit Singhi. The night before his arrest, Vasupal had also put out a blog saying he was being harassed by his landlord and by Jig Saw Solutions. Voodoo dolls were sent to the CFO's house.

On Monday, the Madras HC suggested to both parties to try mediation if it is a clear case of breach of contract. 

Justice S Baskaran made this suggestion orally when the bail plea moved by Vasupal came up for hearing on Monday. “The judge said why you can’t try mediation. But how can we go for mediation unless bail is given to Vasupal?" asked Stayzilla’s counsel B Kumar.