The Delhi Worldwide Airport is claimed to have stood witness to the dramatic detention of a serial startup founder final week. In response to a number of sources Inc42 spoke to, Ankit Maheshwari was picked up by police quickly after he disembarked a global flight and flown to Kolkata, the place he was arrested on fees of alleged fraud. 

The Dataisgood founder was offered earlier than the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom on September 26, the sources advised Inc42, refusing to be quoted in a subjudice matter. 

However, what performed behind the unfolding of the arrest saga stays unclear. Inc42 has reviewed an FIR filed in Might 2025 by Kantika Mukherjee, a resident of Kolkata, whose LinkedIn profile reveals her because the deputy director of LawSikho, one other model run by Ability Arbitrage. Delhi NCR-based edtech platform Ability Arbitrage’s mum or dad entity had acquired Dataisgood in 2023. 

The FIR (reviewed by Inc42), lodged at Kolkata’s Kalighat Police Station, alleged that Maheshwari, cofounder Shishir Singh, and some others had been concerned in dishonest, legal conspiracy, misuse of funding funds, and information theft.

Each Maheshwari and Singh had filed for anticipatory bail on the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom. Nonetheless, on September 1, Justice Jay Sengupta rejected their bail pleas as a result of seizure of incriminating proof suggesting suspected malpractices.

The duo moved the Supreme Courtroom on September 24, solely to be turned down but once more. The apex courtroom, nonetheless, granted the founders three weeks to give up and apply for normal bail. The dramatic occasions on the Delhi airport indicated that Maheshwari had gone overseas in defiance of the courtroom order. He’s now in police custody in Kolkata, in response to his household.

The household, nonetheless, denied all allegations. “The FIR is motivated, and the allegations should not right. The matter is earlier than the courtroom. We think about the judicial course of and can’t remark extra at this juncture. We’re hopeful that fact will prevail, and we are going to get justice,” Maheshwari’s father Anil Maheshwari advised Inc42 in a written assertion.

Now, the massive query is what actually went down at Dataisgood and why Ability Arbitrage went after the founders. 

Reconstructing The Occasions

The story begins six years again, when Ankit Maheshwari and Shishir Singh rolled out Dataisgood as a platform to coach aspirants in information science with a 100% placement assure.

By 2023, Addictive Studying Applied sciences, the mum or dad entity of Ability Arbitrage and LawSikho, stepped into the ring, choosing up 100% of Dataisgood in a $3 Mn part-cash, part-stock deal, in response to sources. 

Ability Arbitrage itself was on a progress path then, catering to mid-career professionals in India and different creating economies and serving to them safe distant jobs, freelance gigs, and internships with startups and SMEs throughout superior economies such because the US, UK, and Canada. 

The acquisition of knowledge science-focussed coaching startup Dataisgood appeared a logical growth with obvious synergy. Underneath the phrases of the settlement, Dataisgood continued to function independently underneath its cofounders, though they didn’t maintain any C-suite designations. Dataisgood noticed its month-to-month recurring income surge from INR 70 Lakh to INR 1.3 Cr. It additionally doubled down on growth, bolstering its worldwide outreach technique.

Some cracks that went unnoticed on the time of sealing the deal started surfacing by 2024, when SkillArbitrage acquired a criticism from the NSDC. “In April 2024, we acquired a criticism by means of the Nationwide Ability Improvement Company that an NRI had complained to the PMO, which they forwarded to us. After we investigated, we discovered a number of surprising irregularities at that occasion,” Ramanuj Mukherjee, cofounder and CEO of SkillArbitrage, stated in a written assertion to Inc42. 

That’s when Ability Arbitrage started digging deeper into Dataisgood’s operations. Questions despatched to Shishir Singh remained unresponded until the time of publication of the story. 

A Can of Worms

Inc42 has learnt that Dataisgood had disclosed solely two authorized disputes on the time of due diligence. “However, in actuality, the startup was mired in a number of authorized disputes with respect to refund claims and faux job guarantees. Worse, the startup continued to mis-sell programs, luring college students with claims of assured jobs at international MNCs and tech giants,” an organization insider stated, requesting anonymity for the reason that matter is in courtroom.

Ability Arbitrage noticed the primary crimson flag when it noticed Dataisgood claiming that it had partnerships with Microsoft and IBM. “When questioned, Maheshwari merely disregarded the considerations, pointing as an alternative to Dataisgood’s rising numbers. ‘Allow us to run issues our method’, he advised Ability Arbitrage’s management,” recounted the supply. 

Because the whiffs of malpractices grew to become stronger, Ability Arbitrage despatched an official for ground-zero reporting. 

On visiting the Dataisgood workplace, the Ability Arbitrage government discovered that staff had been being offered as profitable alumni working at prime MNCs. These faux alumni, usually falsifying accents, can be launched to potential college students on gross sales calls to construct credibility and shut offers. “The gross sales crew would inform an applicant that an alumni, who’s working at Microsoft, might mentor them. However, it turned out to be an in-house worker solely pretending to be a Dataisgood graduate,” a second supply advised Inc42. 

Some staff had been additionally tasked with planting fabricated testimonials on platforms like Quora. These faux posts had been meant to glorify how Dataisgood had helped them land dream jobs at marquee corporations. 

Ability Arbitrage instantly put in name recorders throughout the gross sales flooring and started reaching out to candidates to confirm the guarantees being made. Inside weeks, complaints started pouring in. Some gross sales executives had been fired on the spot. 

“After this, we deployed prime executives from Ability Arbitrage to handle the operations of Dataisgood. Over the subsequent few months, it emerged that there had been many false testimonials planted by earlier Dataisgood administration, together with associates, spouse and kinfolk of Ankit Maheshwari and previous staff earlier than the acquisition, particularly on the Quora platform,” Mukherjee advised Inc42. 

When confronted, Maheshwari allegedly distanced himself, insisting that he wasn’t working the operations instantly and blamed Ability Arbitrage for interfering and disrupting the enterprise. Maheshwari stepped down round mid-2024, however the harm had been completed. 

Ability Arbitrage has to this point processed a considerable quantity in refunds to college students allegedly conned by Dataisgood, in response to firm officers who requested anonymity. The model Dataisgood was finally discontinued. 

Not All Beans Have been Spilled But

Maheshwari’s exit from Dataisgood was not the tip of all of it. Inside months, he quietly launched a brand new platform referred to as 1to10X, as soon as once more providing information and AI-related programs with guarantees of profitable jobs. In truth, he tags himself as a “3X Founder with 3X Exits” on his LinkedIn profile (extra on that later).  

Ability Arbitrage realized about this enterprise solely after complaints from unfamiliar college students began to floor. “We tried to hint these college students in our system to grasp their points. That’s after we found Maheshwari had floated one other firm. His new web site additionally listed our cellphone quantity as a contact,” a 3rd supply advised Inc42.

Maheshwari had additionally put up a mail forwarder system on his Dataisgood e mail ID to his different mail ID, which gave him entry to numerous important data. This was additionally highlighted within the courtroom listening to. 

“It appeared to us that the perpetrators had been promoting programs overseas with false guarantees of jobs at META, Google, Microsoft, and many others., pretending to be calling from London and California and making an attempt to ship them to us to hurt our status,” Mukherjee stated. 

Not solely had Maheshwari arrange a competing enterprise, however a number of Dataisgood staff had been moonlighting for him whereas nonetheless being on Ability Arbitrage payrolls. A lot of them finally jumped ship to affix his new enterprise.

Sources additionally alleged that AI-generated testimonials and pictures had been getting used to create a picture of success for the 1to10x, although Inc42 couldn’t independently confirm these claims.

The Calcutta Excessive Courtroom, in its September order rejecting Maheshwari’s anticipatory bail plea, particularly flagged his “second inning” of alleged illegal practices. The courtroom famous that he had launched one other firm, made “unlawful good points with the identical type of guarantees” and even listed Ability Arbitrage’s contact quantity as his personal. The courtroom is more likely to hear the matter within the subsequent few weeks once more. 

The current-day model of the 1to10x web site, nonetheless, has scrubbed Maheshwari’s identify from its management web page. As an alternative, it now lists his brother Arjun Maheshwari and cofounder Shishir Singh because the folks behind the corporate. Curiously, the LinkedIn profiles to their bios on the web site result in error pages.

Questions despatched to Arjun Maheshwari didn’t elicit any response on the time of publishing this story. 

A Previous Mired In Controversy

Dataisgood and 1to10x don’t make the primary situations of Maheshwari’s murky dealings. 

In his earlier enterprise Betaout, based in 2014, alongside together with his brother Arjun, spouse Nandini Rathi, cofounder Mayank Dhingra, and Raghubir Tahkur, Maheshwari allegedly pulled an analogous play.

Betaout, a advertising and marketing automation startup, rapidly made a splash. Inside two years, it raised almost $3 Mn in funding, a sizeable feat some 12 years again, from marquee backers like Beenext, Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels, LetsVenture, Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm), Kunal Bahl (Titan Capital), Rohit Bansa (Titan Capital), Ashish Tulsian (Restroworks), and Anupam Mittal (Individuals Group). 

By 2018, nonetheless, Beatout was struggling to scale revenues and started scouting for a purchaser after a possible acquisition deal by Paytm failed. Angel buyers actively helped the crew join with potential acquirers in India. But, the founders allegedly went forward with a cope with US-based BlueCore, with out informing their early backers.

Inc42 additional learnt that through the acquisition, Betaout’s cofounder, Mayank Dhingra, stepped down from his cofounder place.

“In hindsight, I realised these founders by no means disclosed the place the cash was being spent,” one angel investor recalled, selecting to not be recognized due to the risky scenario. “We wished what was greatest for the corporate. As an alternative, they bypassed us and struck a cope with Bluecore. Ultimately, all early buyers exited at greater than a 90% haircut, whereas the cofounders walked away with a hefty payout.”

Maheshwari, in his LinkedIn profile, quoted Arthur C Clarke: “The one approach to uncover the bounds of the attainable is to transcend them into the unimaginable.” Assessing the bounds of his plight, battling the fees of dishonest and misappropriating funds, appears unimaginable now.

Edited By Kumar Chatterjee