AIB's Gursimran Khamba Issues An Apology On His Ouster After Sexual Harassment Allegations
After being sent by AIB on a temporary leave, co-founder Gursimran Khamba has now come out in the open and apologised for the sexual harassment allegations against him. Read his statement right here
Just this afternoon, AIB issued a statement saying that
AIB's co-founder Tanmay Bhat was asked to step down from his post. Also,
Gursimran Khamba was sent on a temporary leave. Now, Gursimran has come out and
issued an apology. Here's what he has to say:
"I am aware of the person who's stated the
incident... in 2015 we had hooked up consensually multiple times. But I
categorically deny the incident mentioned in October and December. I was not
forceful. It is true that I developed feelings for her while she was dating
someone else. During that time given our friendship and history I felt rejected
and was angry and did not behave appropriately at all. It had become a toxic
relationship and I'd like to apologise unconditionally for it like I had done
in the past. That behaviour was extremely uncalled for. She rightly stopped
talking to me. After a few months, she reached out to me and we tried being
friends again,however I was already in a relationship with my wife-and she was
uncomfortable with our past history because of which I stopped talking to her.
I'm sorry for my bad behaviour and all he hurt it caused her but I
categorically deny any violation of consent."
"We have been closely monitoring the sequence of
events on social media around the allegations against AIB and also our
Co-founder and CEO, Tanmay Bhat. We cannot overlook Tanmay’s role and in light
of this, he will be stepping away from his association with AIB until further
notice. This implies that Tanmay will not be involved in the day to day
functioning of AIB or in any other manner.
Statement pic.twitter.com/KR5tM2sYuX
— All India Bakchod (@AllIndiaBakchod) October 8, 2018
We have also just been appraised of the allegations
against Gursimran Khamba on social media. At this point in time, these
allegations pertain to a private matter and he has released a statement on his
own about the same. However, as an organisation, we believe that it would be
prudent to place Gursimran Khamba on a temporary leave of absence until we have
more clarity on the matter.
We understand that disconcert of any kind adversely
affects the work culture and creates an unsafe space for our employees. Nobody
should have to work in an environment such as that and we hope to enable
measures to establish our commitment to creating a gender sensitive workspace.
We are in the process of consulting various experts to ensure that our work
culture incorporates sensitivity, inclusivity, respect and fairness.
As mentioned, at this time, both of our senior partners
are immediately stepping away from all business at AIB. Truthfully, we do not
know what this means for the future of AIB or whether there is one. In the
interim, Ashish Shakya, Rohan Joshi and other senior team members will work
towards being able to answer that question over the next several months.”
