Bengaluru: Ahead of Cult.fit’s IPO, a dispute over the origins of the fitness company has widened beyond allegations of forged company filings, with Deepak Poduval, co-founder of the original Cult Fitness business, disputing Cult.fit’s account of how it acquired the Cult brand in 2016.
Poduval told TOI he never agreed to transfer the Cult brand, intellectual property or other assets to CultFit Healthcare and received no payment from the company. Cult.fit has filed for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of up to Rs 950 crore, alongside an offer for sale by existing shareholders.
“Absolutely not,” Poduval said when asked whether he had agreed to sell anything to CultFit Healthcare. “If there was an acquisition, if it was a slump sale, if it was a share transfer, where is that document? I want to see that.” He said he had not personally signed any agreement transferring the brand or assets.
Cult.fit, however, has said the acquisition was properly documented and paid for. “Basis our records, our subsidiary, CultFit Healthcare acquired certain assets and intellectual property rights, including ‘Cult – The Workout Station’ brand name, from Deepak Poduval and Cult Fitness in 2016 under appropriate contractual arrangements and for consideration which was duly paid and also acknowledged by the complainant,” the company said.
The dispute follows an FIR registered at Bengaluru’s Bellandur police station on August 6 against Rishabh Telang and Cult Fitness. Poduval and Telang had started the original company as equal shareholders.
Poduval alleges that signatures purporting to be his were forged on multiple corporate filings, including documents used to strike off the company. He said he discovered the records after checking MCA filings on May 8 this year. “Every other document after that, which is the financial filing, and every other document and 2019 strike-off documents all have forged signatures,” he told TOI.
Telang has categorically denied the allegations. “I categorically deny having forged his signatures on the documents as alleged in the FIR,” he said. “Deepak was fully involved in the transactions with CultFit Healthcare as well as the winding up of Cult Fitness, of which I possess multiple correspondence.”
Telang also said Poduval “has received payment from the company as part of the agreement” and pointed to a March 12, 2020, MCA email sent to both men as evidence of Poduval’s involvement in the winding-up process.
Cult.fit said neither the IPO-bound company nor CultFit Healthcare is an accused in the FIR, adding that Cult Fitness was an independent company over which it had no ownership or management control.
Poduval said he now plans to pursue the matter before the NCLT and Registrar of Companies, alongside the police case. “There has to be some accountability for this thing,” he said.
