Yahoo StyleWhiteHat Jr's Founder Slaps Rs 20 Crore Lawsuit Against 'Whistleblower': All You Need to Know
Karan Bajaj, the founder of online coding classes startup WhiteHat Jr, has filed a $2.6 million lawsuit against Pradeep Poonia, an engineer who publicly slammed the company for its marketing tactics. The hearing took place in the Delhi High Court on Monday.
According to a TechCrunch report, Poonia has been accused of "infringing trademarks and copyright of properties owned by WhiteHat Jr, defaming and spreading misleading information about the startup and its founder, and accessing the company's private communications app". The start-up now owned by ed-tech company BYJUs
The lawsuit claimed that Poonia recorded sessions of some WhiteHat Jr classes and asked questions that were not relevant to the course to "humiliate and harass" the teachers and then posted them online.
Poonia, had, in a series of tweets shared alleged recordings of WhiteHatJr teachers in online classes apparently struggling to explain basic concepts such as cloud storage and the Internet.
WhiteHatJr Teacher explains How does Internet work and Cloud Storage.#WhiteHatJr #WhiteHatJrScam pic.twitter.com/oqUY99dUbO
— Pradeep Poonia (@whiteHatSnr) November 10, 2020
After "Java me hum C++ use karte hai" another #WhiteHatJr teacher explains How does Internet work
Btw guys last night my LinkedIn AGAIN got suspended. After 16 YT videos, 2 YT chnls, 2 Reddit accts, Quora, Twitter handle, many articles #WhiteHatJrScam is still getting me banned pic.twitter.com/ffN5gJNJdj
— Pradeep Poonia (@whiteHatSnr) November 10, 2020
In a subsequent tweet, Poonia also alleged that a WhiteHat Jr member tried to threaten him on the Telegram app. "Since a couple of weeks I suspected they were tracking me, many insiders informed me about this. But last night they just crossed the limits. They might be tapping my phone number as well," he tweeted while sharing a screenshot of the purported chat.
Last night #WhiteHatJr team member threatened me with an anonymous telegram account. Since couple of weeks I suspected they were tracking me, many insiders informed me about this. But last night they just crossed the limits. They might be tapping my phone number as well. pic.twitter.com/feJvpuRzOn
— Pradeep Poonia (@whiteHatSnr) November 13, 2020
Poonia has also shared alleged screenshots of WhiteHat Jr's team internal chats on Slack app, wherein the team members have been targetting social media posts criticising the startup, he claimed in several tweets.
2. #WhiteHatJr entire ORM team jumps on the tweets of the already frustrated and suicidal girl & starts reporting it from their personal accounts as well & within hours by 4am puts a temp restriction on her tweets
For reference, Nikhil Mittal is Marketing VP of #WhiteHatJrScam pic.twitter.com/0JDgO7hV5z
— Pradeep Poonia (@whiteHatSnr) November 13, 2020
Why #WhiteHatJr did this desperate lawsuit to silence me? They don't want me to show you THIS.
June'19: A WHJ teacher asks may I know about these kids from WHJ ads who became CEO and see their apps?@realkaranbajaj: "Now we will have to create the app :D"#Byjus #WolfGupta
PROOF: pic.twitter.com/QjlkV1jlio
— Pradeep Poonia (@whiteHatSnr) November 22, 2020
On Monday, Delhi High Court heard the case, a few key takeaways from which are following:
Delhi HC starts hearing Karan Bajaj's defamation matter against Pradeep Poonia.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 23, 2020
Sr. Adv. Rohatgi appearing for Bajaj, joins in states that Bajaj is an educator, yoga instructor.
The business of Byju's is coding, which means teaching youngsters the right way to think and innovate. #Byjus #WhiteHatJr
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 23, 2020
Rohatgi: WhiteHat Jr is a registered trademark. If your lordships Google coding in general, it will take you to WhiteHat's website. We have thousands and lakhs of children. Our model is such that if after attending our first class you do not like it, we refund the money back.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 23, 2020
Rohatgi: He claims what WhiteHat Jr is doing is no different from sexual abuse as the kids will have 'lifelong issues'. Who is he (Poonia) to tell us that our children shouldn't dream? #WhiteHatJr
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 23, 2020
Del HC agrees that case needs to be heard on both sides. Poonia is not involved in any profit making.
"Prima facie, at this stage no injunction can be granted."
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 23, 2020
Next date of hearing is fixed at 6.01.2021. 3 weeks given for reply and 2 weeks for rejoinder.
On the question of WhiteHat Sr, HC restrains Poonia from using the name WhiteHat Sr on its YouTube channel, and further demands specific URLs for Take Down order.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 23, 2020
Leading ed-tech firm BYJU'S in August acquired Mumbai-based WhiteHat Jr in an all-cash deal worth $300 million (roughly Rs 2,246 crore).
Bajaj, WhiteHat Jr Founder and former Discovery Networks India CEO continue to lead and scale the business in India and the US.
WhiteHat Jr is India's second-largest ed-tech company at a revenue run rate of $150 million.
WhiteHat Jr had recently announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand after a stellar growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes.
After launching their courses in the US in February, the company is growing at more than 100 per cent (month-on-month) in the country.
Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding.
(With IANS inputs)
