On March 12, The Economic Times (ET) carried a story headlined “Investors considering to remove Housing.com co-founder Rahul Yadav as CEO: Sources”. The story, as evident from the headline, was routine pink paper stuff: Unhappy investors of a start-up speaking up anonymously against the company’s chief executive officer (CEO).  However, what followed is far from routine and has ended in The Times Group sending a legal notice to Rahul Yadav, the CEO, among others, demanding Rs 100 crore for “defamation”.

Yadav took offence to the ET report, which claimed that the company was bleeding huge amounts of money, and shot off an “internal” email, which found its way to VCCircle.com, a portal that reports on start-ups.

Yadav’s primary contention in the email is that The Times Group was in conflict of interest publishing the story since it had direct stakes in Magic Bricks, a company that directly competes with Housing.com. A disclosure of the connection is categorically mentioned in the ET report.

It must be noted here that the ET report did carry Yadav’s version according to which Housing.com wasn’t bleeding as much money as the anonymous investors the reporter spoke to, claimed. The story also quotes Yadav stating that he was not going to be replaced as the CEO.

The ET story, though, has since removed the bit about Yadav being involved in a car accident. (One of Housing.com’s co-founders Advitiya Sharma was recently booked by the Mumbai Police for a car accident but Yadav was not present in the car.)

When Newslaundry contacted Amit Rai, Director (Legal), Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, publishers of ET, he said the paper stood by the story. So was the legal notice in response to the “internal” email sent by Yadav? “The so-called internal email was published in VCCircle.com, so how did it make its way to a public website if it was internal communication?” asked Rai.

According to sources, Yadav didn’t just stop at writing an “internal” email but even sent emails to some of the journalists covering the company, threatening them of dire consequences if they wrote negative stories against the company.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Yadav, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, has sent out angry emails when things haven’t worked out for him. Only a few days earlier, Yadav had sent an email to Shailendra Singh, Sequoia Capital’s  (a venture capital firm) Managing Director  Shailendra Singh, for allegedly trying to poach Housing.com’s employees. In the email, Yadav wrote:

If you don’t stop messing with me, directly or even indirectly, I will vacate the best of your firm.

Yadav wasn’t available for comments. Sources close to Yadav told Newslaundry that he has been strictly warned by co-founders of the company to stay away from the media.

Housing.com recently raised Rs 610 crore from Japan’s SoftBank. However, what Housing.com desperately seems to be in need of is some soft skills.