Ola Krutrim Engineer’s Death By Suicide Raises Toxic Workplace Red Flags

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The following article contains reporting around a death by suicide. If you or any of your loved ones need help or are in mental distress, please reach out to the central government-supported TeleMANAS helpline (1800-891-4416) or download the Tele MANAS app

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Ola Krutrim has confirmed in a statement that an engineer (name withheld), part of the company’s data science teams, died by suicide on May 8. 

An Ola Krutrim spokesperson stated that the employee was on personal leave at the time and had asked for rest in early April, which was granted. The company added that it was supporting the family and cooperating with authorities. 

While the company’s full statement has used the first name of the employee, Inc42 has redacted this portion from the statement:  “He was on personal leave at the time of the incident. He had reached out to his manager on the 8th of April, expressing that he needed rest, and was promptly granted personal time off. Later, on the 17th of April, he shared that he was feeling better but would benefit from additional rest, and his leave was extended accordingly.” 

Inc42 also sent questions to Ola Krutrim on allegations in social media posts where the employee’s death was first reported. The spokesperson did not comment on the same. 

Ola’s Toxic Work Culture Allegedly Responsible

The posts alleged that the employee was under severe work-related stress, and the replies to these posts seem to corroborate the events. 

The post, shared anonymously on Reddit, claims the employee was left managing an entire project alone after two teammates quit. Despite being a fresher, he was allegedly burdened with the responsibilities of three employees. 

Notably, the posts on Reddit directly name Rajkiran Panuganti, Ola Krutrim’s head of Gen AI engineering, accusing him of verbal abuse, poor leadership, and emotional neglect of subordinates, especially freshers. Panuganti is based in the US as per his LinkedIn profile, which has been deleted. Details of his profile were captured by X user India first.

“He just attends the calls, bashes people left, right and centre and disappears,” one Reddit post alleged, and added, “Even after this shocking incident, there has been no behavioural change.”

Ola Krutrim did not respond to questions about internal systems and mechanisms in place for employees to raise concerns about bullying or work-related stress. 

The company did not offer comment on whether past incidents of workplace toxicity, as alleged in recent reporting by RestOfWorld, was addressed. 

A cursory search on Glassdoor and other job review portals — or indeed social media reviews — paint a concerning picture about the work culture at Ola Krutrim as well as Ola Electric. 

In particular, founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal is said to have broken laptops and other equipment in meetings to these things. In another reported instance, during a visit to the Ola Futurefactory in Tamil Nadu, an employee was reportedly instructed to run three laps around the expansive facility as a reprimand for leaving a shuttered entryway open.

The tragic news of the employee’s death comes as Ola Krutrim is in something of a leadership crisis. In the last one year, Ola Krutrim has seen departures of business and strategy head Ravi Jain, applied AI director Ashish Kumar, and long-time Ola veteran Priyanka Nayak.

A more recent report said Ola Krutrim is reportedly stepping up hiring efforts for its AI labs located in Bengaluru, US and Singapore to plug leadership gaps. 

[Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam]

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If you or any of your loved ones need help or are in mental distress, please reach out to the central government-supported TeleMANAS helpline (1800-891-4416) or download the Tele MANAS app