A resort in Jaipur has filed an FIR against Ritesh Agarwal-owned OYO after receiving GST notices worth crores, alleging that the travel booking platform had provided “incorrect information” that resulted in the notices.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the FIR was filed on basis of a complaint by Madan Jain at the Ashok Nagar police station of Jaipur. Jain, who is associated with Samskara Resorts, said his hotel was served a show cause notice of ₹2.66 crore from the GST (Goods and Service Tax) office.
Livemint could not independently verify the report at the time of writing the article and has reached out to OYO seeking comments. The story will be updated immediately after getting a response.
What does the FIR against OYO say?
Lodging the FIR, Madan Jain of Samskara Resorts alleged “to show an inflated annual turn-over, thousands of fake bookings were shown in the name of Samskara resort”, reported The Indian Express.
It further details that the resort offers its services via online booking as well as walk-in.
As part of their online bookings, Samskara had signed an agreement with OYO on April 18, 2019, for 12 months.
Jain alleged in the FIR that OYO instead showed bookings in Samskara for financial years 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21.
The FIR further claims that April 18, 2019 and April 20, 2020, Samskara Resorts did a business of ₹10.95 lakh from OYO, GST of which it had paid to the travel aggregator at that time.
However, OYO has reportedly shown it has done a business of ₹22.22 crore with Samskara, prompting GST officials to send a show cause notice of ₹2.66 crore as well as penalties.
Ritesh Agarwal named in FIR?
As per the report, the FIR names Ritesh Agarwal, founder and Group CEO as part of the complaint. Oravel Stays Private Limited or OYO, as well as other people, have been named in the FIR for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and criminal conspiracy under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the report mentioned.
Hotel Federation of Rajasthan president Hussain Khan has accused OYO of allegedly showing inflated bills to GST office, which has caused about 20 hotels to receive notices. Citing ‘poor record’ of OYO, he told Indian Express that “we had campaigned against it, with 125 hotels displaying banners outside the hotels stating that we are not accepting OYO bookings” four years ago as well.
