Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal's father dies after fall from 20th floor of Gurugram high-rise

Oyo Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal’s father Ramesh Agarwal died on Friday after falling from 20th floor of a Gurugram high-rise building. The death comes days after Ritesh Agarwal's wedding. 

In a statement, Ritesh Agarwal requested "everyone to respect our privacy in this time of grief".

“With a heavy heart, my family and I, would like to share that our guiding light and strength, my father, Shri Ramesh Agarwal passed away on 10 March. He lived a full life and inspired me and so many of us, every single day. His death is a tremendous loss for our family. My father’s compassion and warmth saw us through our toughest times and carried us forward. His words will resonate deep in our hearts. We request everyone to respect our privacy in this time of grief," said Ritesh Agarwal.

DCP, Gurugram East, said the police got informed about the incident at around 1 pm on Friday. "At about 1 pm, information was received from DLF security that a person has fallen from 20th floor of DLF The Crest society and was taken to Paras Hospitals for treatment. A team along with SHO Sector 53 visited place of occurrence. During inspection of place of occurrence fallen person was identified as Ramesh Prasad Agarwal. Ramesh Prasad Agarwal was brought dead to Paras Hospitals.  He fell from his  apartment's balcony and at the time of his death, his wife, son Ritesh Agarwal and his (newly-wed) wife were at the apartment. No suicide note was found. There has been no complaint from the family over the circumstances of the death," said Virender Vij.

"Inquest report under Section 174 CrPC was carried out. A team along with Sector 53 Station House Office (SHO) visited the place of occurrence. Post-mortem has been done and body was handed over," said the police official.

Ramesh Agarwal was reportedly living in an apartment in the high-rise along with his wife. His son's residence is not based in the same building, said news reports.

Earlier this week, 29-year-old Ritesh Agarwal tied the knot with Geetansha Sood, the director of Farmation Ventures Private Limited, and the grand reception in Delhi was attended by several celebrities, including Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son, former BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover, Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal among others.

Ritesh Agarwal's family belongs to the city of Rayagada in Odisha, where they ran a small shop. Agarwal used to sell SIM cards there, before leaving for higher studies to Kota, from where he visited Delhi without telling his parents. 

Oyo is backed by the likes of Microsoft, SoftBank Vision Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India, and others.

The hospitality tech start-up reported a net loss of Rs 333 crore in the second quarter of FY23. Oyo was launched in 2012 by Agarwal. 

After weathering two tough years owing to the Covid pandemic, the company revived its stock market plans this year and was, earlier this year, asked by Sebi to refile with additional sections in its DRHP, such as updated risk factors, key performance indicators (KPIs), outstanding litigations, basis for valuation etc.