Samdish versus Sattvik: Equity, ‘assault’ and an unravelling at Unscripted

Samdish Bhatia, a former ScoopWhoop anchor, has accused the media website’s chief executive officer Sattvik Mishra of sexual assault. According to Bhatia, the incident took place in October last year and he filed a complaint with the company’s internal complaints committee within days of the alleged sexual assault.

Mishra has denied the charges and accused Bhatia of fabricating the story to extort Rs 7 crore from him. Bhatia has denied this and levelled counter allegations, that he was offered hush money by people speaking on behalf of Mishra, to bury his complaint.

ScoopWhoop was founded in 2013 and became popular for its listicle-driven format. Bhatia was a consultant with ScoopWhoop and a popular anchor of its video vertical Unscripted. In October 2021, ScoopWhoop was acquired by Mumbai-based Good Glamm group, which said it’ll invest Rs 500 crore in the media website over three years. That month, Bhatia and his team resigned from Unscripted. In December, they started their own YouTube channel called Unfiltered.

The first whiff that all was not well at ScoopWhoop came last month, when Bhatia, 28, put up a post on Instagram on January 14, in which he said he had been assaulted during his time at ScoopWhoop.

On February 7, Bhatia put up another post, this time with more details. He named 35-year-old Mishra and said he had sexually assaulted Bhatia. “I was sexually assaulted by the CEO of ScoopWhoop Pvt Ltd, Sattvik Mishra. I have been denied my truth and punished for just wanting to live my life,” Bhatia wrote in the post.

An overview

While Bhatia and Mishra have described the events of their meeting very differently, both agree that they met on October 7, 2021, and that the meeting continued past midnight, into October 8, 2021. Late into the meeting, Bhatia has alleged he was sexually assaulted by Mishra.

On October 10, 2021, two days after the incident, Mishra sent Bhatia an apology over WhatsApp at 4.34 am.

Bhatia filed a complaint, dated October 20, 2021, with ScoopWhoop’s ICC, which Newslaundry has accessed. In it, Bhatia wrote, “Mr Mishra made unwanted, unsolicited, and uncalled [for] sexual advances and sexually predatory behaviour of criminal and civil consequences and is in violation of the law.”

In November, Bhatia moved court against Mishra and Sriparna Tikekar, Mishra’s wife and co-founder of ScoopWhoop. He alleged Mishra had acted in violation of sections 377 and 354A of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with unnatural offences and sexual harassment; and charged Tikekar with abetment under sections 108 and 116.

In January this year, ScoopWhoop entered the legal fray. Days after Bhatia’s first post on Instagram, WhoopScoop Media Private Limited, a spin-off of ScoopWhoop, moved court to seek a permanent and temporary injunction, to prevent Bhatia’s allegations from going public. It argued that the “dispute” between Bhatia and Mishra was before a “Grievance Committee” and the allegations would adversely affect ScoopWhoop’s reputation and goodwill if made public.

The Patiala House court refused the injunction in the first hearing on January 22, 2022. The case is ongoing.

Bhatia’s allegation: ‘An unwelcome, unsolicited, and uncalled assault’

Bhatia’s ICC complaint describes the alleged assault as well as events that preceded and succeeded it. He has also submitted details in his affidavit in court.

Bhatia said he and Mishra met on October 7, 2021. By this time, Bhatia was no longer a consultant with Scoopwhoop.

The meeting was at Mishra’s invitation and began at Scoopwhoop’s office to discuss the future of Unscripted, which was supposed to become a spin-off from the company. The talks about “the restructuring, organizational structure, equity, stakes, etc.” were pending, according to Bhatia. He had asked for 25 percent equity stake in the new company, and been offered 7.5 percent.

On October 7, 2021, the meeting began at 5.30 pm. Mishra suggested they invite ScoopWhoop creative director Avalok Langer to the discussion, since he was “expected to be a significant part of the spin off venture”, and, also because they had to “sort out issues” between Bhatia and Langer.

An hour and a half later, at Mishra’s suggestion, the two moved to a bar near Mishra’s home. Eventually, Langer joined them at the bar too. The discussion was about “stake sharing, revenue modelling, compensations, future visions, deliverables, responsibilities” and “full of friendly banter, jokes, internal references, gossips[sic]”.

After midnight, at closing time, the bar staff asked the three to leave. “Mr Mishra suggested to finish the drinks at his house and everyone started walking towards his house.” Bhatia said that at this point, Langer “excused himself and left for his home rather quickly”.

Mishra invited Bhatia to his duplex home. “At that point of time, there were four members in the house apart from both of us, viz, Ms Sriparna Tikekar (co-founder of the Company and wife of Mr Mishra), their infant daughter...their house-help who opened the door and let both of us in, and a cat.”

Mishra and Bhatia sat on a sofa on the ground floor of the house. Tikekar was on the first floor and did not join them. The conversation on equity stakes continued, but Mishra was “stumbling, his speech was unclear, slurred”. Bhatia noted that Mishra was “unable to balance himself, his motor abilities were severely compromised, and he appeared to be in no control of himself at all”.

At one point, Bhatia claims Mishra sat very close to him and then leaned in to ask for a kiss.

“In exact words ‘tujhe equity chaiye to ek chummi to de de’ [if you want equity, give me a kiss]”. Bhatia felt “threatened”, “violated” and “unsafe”, and he “stopped Mr Mishra with his hand, to which Mr Mishra said ‘bhai, tu ab aisa karega mera saath’ [bro, is this how you’re going to treat me?]”.

Shortly afterwards, Langer called Bhatia and told him Tikekar — who was upstairs — had called him to complain that Mishra and Bhatia were “making too much noise”. Langer told Bhatia to “leave the house” to which Bhatia says he told Langer, “Avalok, I am trying to escape, I am trying to escape.”

Then, Mishra “removed himself from the clothes and was standing only and only in his t-shirt, with his private parts distinctly visible”. He repeated that he wanted a kiss. Bhatia was “aghast” and “feared for himself”. He says he told Mishra, “no hard feelings, just let me go. Just let me go,” so that the latter “would let go of his uncontrolled desire” to sexually prevail upon him.

At this point, Bhatia received a call from Tikekar, “asking him to send the cat upstairs”. When he did so, Bhatia noticed Tikekar was “peeking out of her room upstairs” and could clearly see her husband was standing “without his boxers, and in his T-shirt in a completely inebriated state”.

Bhatia says despite seeing this scene, all Tikekar did was that she “engaged him on the pretext of sending the cat upstairs”. Meanwhile Mishra “made and continued his sexual overtures”. Bhatia said Tikekar was “an accessory during and after the fact in so much as she provided [Mishra] the opportunity” to perpetrate his assault on Bhatia.

Mishra kept walking towards Bhatia “with constant demand of a kiss in lieu of equity” and eventually, the anchor “escaped with much difficulty”. Once he’d left Mishra’s home, Bhatia “immediately called Mr Langer and informed him of the incident”.

Aftermath: a meeting and an apology

Bhatia told Newslaundry that besides Langer, he told two others about what happened at Mishra’s home on the intervening night of October 7 and 8, 2021: his partner (now wife); and Arvind Jaiswal, who used to work on Bhatia’s program Unscripted with ScoopWhoop and left the company to work with Bhatia on Unfiltered.

Newslaundry contacted Jaiswal, who confirmed he’d received a Whatsapp call from Bhatia on the evening of October 8, 2021.

“I’ve worked with Samdish for six years and I’ve never seen him that upset,” Jaiswal said. “He said he met Sattvik Mishra at the ScoopWhoop office and then they went to a bar, where Avalok [Langer] joined them. Avalok eventually left and Sattvik invited Samdish home to drink more, and when they reached there, he said Sattvik sexually harassed him.”

Jaiswal said Bhatia had described the assault on the call. “If I remember correctly, he said Sattvik dropped his boxers and was completely naked except for a T-shirt. I might not remember the exact details, but Samdish said that Sattvik either wanted a kiss or a blowjob. He [Bhatia] resisted and said, ‘Are you mad? What are you doing?’ He said Sattvik kept repeating, ‘Tu itna nahi karega?’ [You won’t do this much?] Then Samdish pushed him to the sofa and fled the house.”

Bhatia’s ICC complaint claims Langer called him for a meeting at the ScoopWhoop office on October 9, 2021 on the “pretext” of discussing their roles in the new company.

At this meeting, Bhatia again told Langer of the incident at Mishra’s home. Langer allegedly conveyed three messages from three different people to Bhatia.

First, Bhatia was informed that ScoopWhoop co-founder Rishi Pratim Mukherjee (referred to as Rishi by his colleagues and friends) “was anxious that the deal of the company might get into jeopardy, if this incident goes out”.

The deal in question is the acquisition of ScoopWhoop by Good Glamm.

Second, Langer told Bhatia that Tikekar was “unhappy” with Bhatia and thought Bhatia’s behaviour with Mishra was inappropriate. Bhatia read the message from Tikekar as a “threat”.

Finally, Mishra was also “unhappy” with Bhatia and was worried that Bhatia may have met Mishra’s father when leaving the house on October 8, 2021.

Newslaundry reached out to Langer for comments, but he declined saying he has been summoned to participate in an internal investigation into the matter.

A day after Bhatia’s meeting with Langer and two days after the alleged incident, on October 10, 2021, Mishra sent Bhatia an apology over Whatsapp at 4.34 am. A screenshot of this message was included in Bhatia’s plea before the Patiala House court.

The message reads:

“Samdish, I’m ashamed and disgusted at myself for my conduct, and I want to deeply apologise to you. It’s not an excuse but I have been taking anti depression and anti anxiety pills for a while now and when mixed with Alcohol, they took me to a very horrible space. I don’t recall most of that night but after learning about it the next morning, including what I put Sriparna and...(his daughter) through, it’s been very difficult to sleep or eat since. I’m truly sorry. I don’t know who I was that night. I hope you will have it in your heart to forgive me, and if you don’t I’ll understand.

“If there is something I can do to make you feel better or undo what I put you through, please let me know. I’m sorry, I really am. I wish nothing but the best for you.

“If it’s okay with you, I’ll like to meet and personally apologise before you leave for Jharkhand.”

Bhatia said he did not reply to this message.

In the complaint he filed with ScoopWhoop’s ICC, Bhatia had three demands. He has asked that ScoopWhoop constitute a new committee which will not include Tikekar as a member. He has also asked that Mishra be asked to step down as CEO of ScoopWhoop immediately. Finally, Bhatia has asked for a “thorough” and “impartial” investigation into the alleged sexual assault.

Mishra’s version: ‘What Samdish did after that night is 100% criminal’

Newslaundry reached out to Mishra, who resigned as the CEO of ScoopWhoop on February 6 citing “personal reasons”. Mishra denied he sexually assaulted Bhatia and accused Bhatia of extortion, alleging the latter demanded crores of rupees in exchange for dropping the complaint of sexual assault.

“What Samdish alleges never happened,” Mishra told Newslaundry. “From everything I remember, the conversation did not have any sexual undertones. I thought I was drinking in my safe space: in my house at 1am with someone I thought was a friend whom I’ve known for five years.”

The following is Mishra’s side of the story, edited for brevity.

Mishra told Newslaundry that when he and Langer met Bhatia on October 7, 2021, Mishra was “excited to bring him [Bhatia] over as a co-founder in Unscripted.” He confirmed that Bhatia was offered a 7.5 percent stake in the new company.

Mishra says the three were at the bar near Mishra’s house from 7pm to 12.30 am. “Samdish and I got smashed, while Avalok had a couple of beers and was mostly sober,” he said.

According to Mishra, as Bhatia got drunk, he became disruptive:

“What started as a regular discussion around the future of media and journalism, towards the end turned into Samdish’s narcissistic rant about how he alone has built Unscripted and how he deserves 25 percent equity in the new company. He was also pretty adamant that we fire Shahbaz Ansar, a talented journalist we hired earlier last year. He said Shahbaz copies his style and now that he’s coming onboard, as a co-founder, his first order of business will be to fire Shahbaz.

“Although I was uncomfortable, initially it seemed like friendly banter until he got extremely drunk and angrily demanded Shahbaz be fired the very next day. He was also pretty upset that I offered him only 7.5 percent equity and, in his own words, found it insulting. ‘If you don’t give me 25 percent, Unscripted will be over. I am Unscripted,’ were his exact words, which he repeated multiple times that night along with the choicest mother-sister abuses in Hindi.”

Mishra admitted to being “super drunk myself” and “could hardly frame sentences at this point”. At 12.30 am, Mishra and Bhatia decided “to have one last drink at my house” while Langer left for his own residence.

Mishra said Bhatia continued to rant once they were in Mishra’s home:

“When we reached home around 12.45 am, a furiously drunk Samdish continued with his angry rant against me and started shouting and demanding his 25 percent. He even wanted Avalok (his boss) and everyone in his team fired because according to him, he is the one that gets all the eyeballs.

“He was so loud and abusive that it woke my wife and infant daughter. I tried to calm him down and requested him multiple times to keep his volume down. I begged him to leave my house and go home, but he just wouldn’t listen. My nanny – who was in the room with Samdish and I – and wife, scared of the situation that was developing, requested Samdish to leave but he just wouldn’t budge and continued with his rant. She had to eventually lock herself in a room and shield herself and our baby from this madness. Scared, she made frantic calls to Avalok, Rishi – who lives nearby – and her brother to come home and get Samdish out of the house (which I came to discover later).

“At this point, after holding back against his misdemeanour the entire night, trying to stay patient, I finally lost my calm. Something flipped in me. In my drunken state, hardly able to stand, I fumbled around and tried to push him out of my house. I got very aggressive (something I deeply regret). It got rough, and ugly.

“When I woke up the next evening hungover and with a terrifying memory of the last moments of the previous night, I felt terrible.

“Acknowledging the fact that I was his senior and should have acted better, drank responsibly and never allowed the evening to run that late into the night, get that crazy; I felt like I owed him an apology, which I texted to him the following day. It was the right thing to do. I also apologised to my wife (who obviously wasn’t talking to me) and my nanny.”

Mishra said Bhatia’s lawyer contacted him “a few days later”, demanding Rs 7 crore “in cash” for the “mental and physical trauma” Bhatia suffered at Mishra’s hands. “He said if you refuse we’ll file a harassment and assault case against you and you won’t be able to deny it because you have already sent him an apology,” alleged Mishra.

Explaining the apology he’d sent Bhatia, Mishra said, “I understand that with an apology like that, you can make any story and it sounds right. But I genuinely felt really bad. Any morally upright person will apologise the next day for being a bad drunk.”

Mishra added that Bhatia’s allegations are “a complete lie” and created with “an agenda to harm me” as well as extort money from Mishra:

“For the next few weeks he used his clout to extort this amount out of me. He’s filed that complaint, which claims that I couldn’t even stand up. He’s stronger and heavier than I am. He saw me in that condition – any sane person would’ve left the house. What stopped him from doing that?

“His offer was simple: you pay me money and I’ll take the complaint back and withdraw the case. In another meeting in November [2021], he asked for 50 percent equity in Unscripted, and ‘everything goes away’. Two weeks later, he met Rishi at Blue Tokai. He wanted the YouTube channel and said we can keep everything else, adding that he’ll end the matter.

“He also massively distorted the events of that night to back me up in a corner. Fearing him, his clout and everything he is capable of, I tried negotiating. I even offered to give in to his demand if he comes down to a reasonable amount. His final offer was [Rs] 3.5 crore, which again was way beyond my reach.”

As evidence of extortion, Mishra shared with Newslaundry a snippet of a recording, which is purportedly of a phone call from “late December to mid-January” between an “associate of Mishra” and Bhatia’s lawyer, Ritesh Dubey. Newslaundry was not able to independently verify the recording.

Associate: Yar basically, I have got a fresh offer from Sattvik…the second offer that you gave of 3.5 crores…he’s basically saying he’s okay with that.

Dubey: Hmm. He’s okay with that?

Associate: Yes, he’s okay giving that. Seven crore is too much for him. But he was like, ‘I’m okay giving 3.5 crore’.

Dubey: Okay, then I will text him [Bhatia]. I don’t know whether he’s still in Delhi because he got married and he’s gone for his vacation.

The conversation ends with Dubey saying he’ll revert once he hears from Bhatia.

Although he is the one who shared this audio clip, Mishra said he did not offer money to Bhatia (which is what his associate tells Dubey in the recording). “Samdish had asked me for Rs 3.5 crore and I said I don’t have that kind of cash," said Mishra.

Mishra also told Newslaundry that he did feel “extremely sorry for his behaviour” on the intervening night of October 7 and 8, 2021, but that the incidents were being wrongly represented:

“I must admit what I did was unbecoming of me, clumsy and rowdy and I am extremely sorry for my behaviour. I have let down my family, my company, my colleagues, and my co-founders. But I will not allow this to be spun into a sordid saga so a greedy colleague can extract his revenge.

The last few months have been incredibly tough for me and my wife. There’s hardly a day that goes by without one of us breaking down. And at some point you need to draw a line and say enough is enough, I’m done being harassed.

When he [Bhatia] finally figured that he was not going to get that money, he put up that cryptic post on Instagram [on January 6]. Why didn’t he do that in the last three and half months?”

Bhatia denies extortion: ‘They wanted to pay me for my silence’

When asked about Mishra’s claims that Bhatia had demanded certain employees of ScoopWhoop be fired while he was inebriated, Bhatia told Newslaundry that those details are not relevant to the complaint of sexual assault. He also alleged Mishra’s version of events was fabricated.

“I completely stand by my version of events,” Bhatia said. “I think Sattvik’s account is very well scripted. These are blatant lies and textbook molester behaviour.” He added, “I can refute it point by point but I refuse to stoop down to his level.”

However, he vehemently denied the allegation that he’d tried to extort Mishra. According to Bhatia, it was Mishra who offered him money to keep quiet about the alleged sexual assault. “The amount he claims my lawyer demanded from him is what he actually offered me for my silence,” Bhatia said. “He called my lawyer and made the offer.”

Bhatia also alleged that co-founder of ScoopWhoop Pratim Mukherjee, referred to as Rishi, also offered him inducements to bury the complaint he’d filed in the presence of a human resources (HR) manager.

“I met Rishi and ScoopWhoop HR manager Poonam Sapra on October 22, 2021. I reiterated my three demands,” Bhatia told Newslaundry. “That’s when Rishi – co-founder of a company that employs 175 people, whose fellow co-founder has also faced a complaint of sexual harassment – asked me what I want. I told him there is a laid-down procedure in law which the organisation has to follow – an ICC investigation. To this, Rishi said that an investigation cannot happen because it would ruin ScoopWhoop’s deal with Good Glamm. He said other possibilities are open. At this point, he offered me more equity in Unscripted.”

Bhatia said he was aghast at this line of inquiry and expressed as much to Mukherjee at the meeting. “I asked him if he was serious. I said, ‘Does the value system with which ScoopWhoop is run not matter to you?’,” recalled Bhatia.

Bhatia also questioned why Mishra had not reported Bhatia for his allegedly disruptive behaviour from the night of October 7 and 8, 2021. “Did he report it to anyone in the organisation? He could’ve reported it to HR or anyone else,” Bhatia said.

The legal process

On January 6, a day after Unfiltered put out a trailer of Bhatia’s interview with Congress politician Kanhaiya Kumar, the anchor received an email from a “grievance team” at WhoopScoop Media, the spin-off company that was registered on October 12, 2021.

“This is with respect to your email alleging sexual harassment faced by you,” it read. “Please be rest assured that we take allegations of sexual harassment very seriously.“

The team, whose email correspondence with Bhatia has been accessed by Newslaundry, asked the anchor to furnish supporting documents for his complaint, details of witnesses and a “date and time for you to meet us so that the proceedings can be taken forward”.

This was the first Bhatia had heard from the company since filing his complaint in October 2021.

On January 7, Bhatia emailed his reply. “May I know who this Grievance Team comprises?” he asked. “This is important for me since in my six years of working at ScoopWhoop Unscripted, I have never heard of any such team and thus, to ensure trust between this team and me and also to make sure that this is handled with at least some level of integrity, I will need to know who all comprise this team.”

When he did not receive a response, Bhatia wrote to WhoopScoop media again on January 12:

“I am willing to provide any assistance, supporting documents, evidence, etc. as may be required for the proceedings that the Grievance Team may undertake,” he wrote. “However, it would be great if the following questions could be answered: 1. Is the Grievance Team functioning in the capacity of the ICC? If yes, please share the composition of the team. 2. Is the Grievance Team having the same powers and jurisdiction as the ICC under the PoSHA?”

Bhatia also made it clear that he would “not submit to any gag order, non-disclosure clause, irrespective of whether Grievance Team or ICC or any other committee decide to take any action or not”.

On January 19, WhoopScoop moved Patiala House court, seeking permanent and temporary injunctions against Bhatia and Mishra through a civil suit, arguing that if the allegations of sexual harassment went public, Scoopwhoop’s reputation would suffer.

Asked about WhoopScoop’s case against him, Mishra said, “This is for the company to answer. I have no comments."

In the first hearing on January 22, the Patiala House Court refused to impose injunctions on Bhatia and Mishra. “At this stage, in the opinion of this court, it cannot be said that the Instagram posts in question, published by the defendant no.1 [Bhatia], are of derogatory / abusive / vulgar /indecent / defamatory nature. It is a mere apprehension of the plaintiff that the defendant no.2 [Mishra] and his wife and/or any other person/organization shall publish or circulate any defamatory contents on the social media/electronic media/print media,” said the judge.

The second hearing was scheduled for 10 am on February 1. Bhatia, who hadn’t heard from the Grievance team since January 12, received an email from them at 9.59 am, which informed him that the grievance team comprised then HR manager Poonam Sapra and advocate Sukun K S Chandele.

“The nature of the proceedings is such that in your interest as well as in the interest of the persons accused by you, we encourage utmost confidentiality till the proceedings have been concluded,” said the email from WhoopScoop.

It added that the “preliminary hearing” into the complaint would be taken up on February 4 at the Regus Business Centre in Vasant Kunj in Delhi.

Dubey, Bhatia’s lawyer, replied at around 1pm the same day. “In this scenario the emails of a self-styled ‘grievance team’ seem to be only a diversionary tactic and an afterthought to forge evidence,” Dubey wrote on Bhatia’s behalf. He added that it was not clear how the grievance team related to the legally-mandated ICC, which is tasked with investigating matters of sexual harassment. Dubey further said WhoopScoop had not explained “what is a grievance team and from where does it draw its powers and functions”.

Questioning the grievance team’s credibility under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act (POSHA), Dubey described the team as “a charade to obviate the farcical endeavour undertaken at the behest of WhoopScoop to shield the perpetrator and vanity of the WhoopScoop Media.”

The third hearing in the case is scheduled for February 10, when Bhatia will file his reply. His own plea against Mishra, filed in the same court on November 16, 2021, will be heard on February 24.

This report has been updated to remove the name of Sattvik Mishra's daughter.

Newslaundry reached out to ScoopWhoop with a set of questions about Bhatia’s complaint and Mishra’s claims. This story will be updated again if we receive any responses from these parties. Read the full statement by Bhatia's lawyer here.