Skyesports founder and CEO Shiva Nandy has denied allegations of inappropriate conduct made by former employees of the Indian esports company, calling them “unfounded allegations” in a statement posted on X on 20 April 2025.
The allegations surfaced on 19 April 2025, when former project coordinator Mrinal “Jollies” Baranwal published a detailed account on X of her time at the company. Baranwal, who joined Skyesports in February 2024 and resigned in December 2024, alleged that Nandy pressed her to have drinks with him in a hotel room during a work trip to Mumbai, repeatedly pulled her head onto his shoulder, and asked personal questions about her marriage plans. She also made allegations against two other senior staff members.
Another former employee, Priyanka “Alexaa” Chaudhary, posted on the same day, alleging that a senior staff member behaved inappropriately towards her at an event in Bangalore. A third former employee, Ananya Sadhak, also spoke out.
Questions over HR
Baranwal said the company had no formal HR department. “Since there is no HR in Sky, I talked to people in Pune,” she wrote. She said that after raising her concerns she received assurances and a meeting, followed by months of silence, and that the only follow-up was a workplace conduct seminar which the accused did not attend.
India’s Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 (the POSH Act) requires employers with ten or more employees to set up an Internal Committee to handle such complaints.
Shiva Nandy’s response
Nandy first responded with an Instagram story: “A coin has two sides… You heard only one side of the story. Please don’t jump to conclusions before the truth prevails.” He then published a detailed statement on X denying the claims, and said his initial silence was to respect internal HR procedures.
He described the room-sharing claims as “far from the truth and an attempt to malign my character”, and said the hotel changes were last-minute arrangements made for better coordination. He said he and Baranwal met one evening to talk about her career, and acknowledged that, in hindsight, a public place would have been better than her room, but that he never intended to make her uncomfortable. He said any physical contact was him consoling her as a mentor, with no sexual intent.
> “I may be an emotional businessman, but that does not make me a predator.”
Nandy also pointed to Baranwal’s performance record, including an extended probation and a pay raise that was not approved, and said the timing of the allegations coincided with these.
TalkEsport has not independently verified the allegations or the responses described in this report. Anyone named in this report can write to [email protected] to respond.
