AIB says Gursimran Khamba out of company\, Tanmay Bhat demoted

AIB says Gursimran Khamba out of company, Tanmay Bhat demoted

Press Trust of India  |  Mumbai 

group on Wednesday announced Gursimran will no longer be involved with the company and will step down from the post of

Last year, and Bhat, the co-founders of the quartet, distanced themselves from the group, which is battling allegations of sexual harassment against its members.

While is under attack for his inaction in the complaints against writer-comedian Utsav Chakraborty, has been directly accused of sexual misconduct.

In a statement shared on its official account, the company also said the YouTube channel is "dead for the foreseeable future".

said there has been an and anti-harassment system in place from the start. But the culture at work may not have been perfect which needs to be improved, the statement added.

"To that end, we maintain that Tanmay Bhat's lapse of judgement regarding Utsav Chakraborty was egregious. As a result, even though, Tanmay Bhat's suspension has been lifted, he will no longer hold the position of "

In Khamba's case, the company said they appointed a two-member (EC) -- comprising a at a firm and a -- to look into the allegations.

But the comic had stepped away from the investigation process during its course, citing "issues with procedure", AIB said in the statement.

"The EC was unable to conclude the investigation on account of this withdrawal. Given these circumstances, will no longer be involved in operations at AIB, and will be working independent of us," the company added.

As per the statement, the company will continue to be managed by remaining two members and Ashish Shakya, who will also pursue solo interests in the coming future.

AIB said as a "hundred per cent independent, creator-owned company", post the allegations going public, their business went to "zero".

"... The lack of revenue inflows made it impossible for us, as owners, to sustain outgoing costs... But with no revenue and operational costs piling up, we had to make some hard, and unfortunately permanent decisions. We had to let our office space and entire team go overnight."

The statement added all the employees who were let go managed to find another job.

"The is for all intents and purposes, dead for the foreseeable future - there will be no new sketches anytime soon... If and when we decide to release other content on the channel (for eg stand-up clips), you will be the first to know," it added.

The statement was the first activity on the group's page since October 2018, after announced and Khamba were distancing themselves from AIB amid allegations in the wake of the #MeToo wave.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, May 22 2019. 20:41 IST