Official Statement By Homegrown

2019 has undoubtedly been an inflection point for us. For a small bootstrapped company that started out 5.5 years ago (and continues each day), there have been powerful lessons that we have learned and are grateful for, however hard they may have been. Its moments like these that present you with an opportunity to change; to be better. Change can be a scary place, uncomfortable and painful sometimes. But we know who we would like to be and are committed to evolving.

2 months ago, an external committee was established involving reputed and respected members from the legal fraternity. The committee conducted a detailed exercise of reviewing the anonymous post that was released on social media against Varun Patra in January 2019. It also took into consideration the clarification statement made by him recently on a Medium post dated May 2019. The incident had fallen beyond the remit of the ICC and its jurisdiction not being at the work place and being personal in nature. The intention was for it to be conducted by individuals of unimpeachable integrity and impartiality. The committee arrived at their decision after careful examination of the statements of both parties and they have advised on reinstating him at the company.

Before arriving at the above decision, the committee itself sought the opinion of a retired Judge of the Bombay High Court who is known for this integrity, impartiality and independence. We were provided with the opinion of the judge which considers all of the above material and with elaborate reasons concurs on reinstating Varun at the company.

Varun Patra has also met with the current employees both old and new, before his formal reinstatement, to actively and openly discuss any questions they may have with the honesty as they deserve. In his words, this will be his small attempt to demonstrate to his team members that he will work towards contributing to growth as he started out with at the inception of Homegrown.

Finally, we believe that Homegrown too will evolve, adapt, grow with the hope to create meaning in the lives of the people it connects with through words, images, experiences and stories alike. And we have a renewed passion and commitment to continuing the work we had once set out to.

And to all of you reading this today, we are better than yesterday.

Thank you.