'No Concrete Evidence': TVF's Arunabh Kumar Acquitted in Sexual Harassment Case

"The prosecution failed to prove guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt," the court said.

Arunabh Kumar.

(Photo: Facebook)

(Trigger warning: Mentions of sexual harassment.)

Arunabh Kumar, the founder and ex-CEO of the YouTube channel 'The Viral Fever' (TVF), has been acquitted by a Mumbai court in a sexual harassment case registered against him in 2017. The case pertained to a former TVF employee accusing Kumar of touching her inappropriately.

Pitchers Season 2, Kumar's latest work as lead actor and creator, was released recently.

Why was he acquitted? The Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Andheri acquitted him over "lack of concrete evidence" on 12 September 2022. The order, which was made available recently, said: "The prosecution failed to prove guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt [sic]."

Kumar was being prosecuted under Section 354 (A) (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code; he had pleaded not guilty.

What was the case? In 2017, the complainant, who was a former TVF employee, approached the police over an incident of alleged sexual harassment involving Kumar, which took place in June 2014. Kumar allegedly touched her inappropriately, and she screamed at him to stop, according to the prosecution.

The court, however, pointed out that she lodged the complaint only after another woman accused Kumar of sexual harassment three years later. At the time, at least eight to nine women had alleged they were sexually harassed by Kumar.

What did the court say? Stating that the prosecution failed to produce concrete evidence against the accused, the court said there was an "unreasonable and unexplained delay in filing FIR, which raised the clouds on the case of prosecution."

And then? "She also admitted that after the incident she do nothing, she did not shout, she did not slapped, when the accused had done alleged incident. Even she has not directly went to the police station. She also admitted that she had silent about the incident for three years. She has not given any print of the screen shot of facebook which were uploaded by the different girls. The suggestions put to her she had filed false case only to extort the accused [sic]," the court added, indicating the shifting of blame on the complainant.

"There are material discrepancy and contradiction... it can (even) be said that the said complaint is filed out of grudge or rivalry on reason business between accused and informant [sic]."

Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Andheri

There's more: The court also said that all witnesses in the case were "interest witnesses," who were "involved in the same industry" as Kumar. "Hence, I hold that the prosecution failed to prove guilt of the accused," it added.

Why is this important? In one of the earliest cases of the #MeToo movement in India, an article was published on Medium by a former employee at TVF, accusing Arunabh Kumar of sexual harassment, in 2017. Following this, multiple women came forward with similar allegations. TVF and Kumar had rubbished the allegations, calling them "untrue."

Arunabh Kumar stepped down as the company's CEO afterward, but he returned to TVF three years later as a 'mentor'.