Ola, Bhavish Aggrawal, and the mystery of the fire that disappeared without smoke

Synopsis
It’s been one and a half months since a newly bought Ola Electric scooter went up in flames in Nelamangala near Bengaluru. The stoic silence of the company about this incident raises questions on how fire incidents involving Ola Electric scooters are being dealt with. As Ola Electric is gearing up for an IPO, the company has to come clean on complaints around scooter fires, service issues and product quality.

November 14, 2023 A couple of minutes past midnight, the Adarsh Nagar neighbourhood of Nelamangala woke up to some unusual noise. Then they heard their neighbour, an elderly woman, crying for help from the upstairs of her rented house. Her husband and sons were fighting a fire downstairs. It was only a few hours after everyone went to bed after Diwali festivities in this housing colony in the town 40km off Bengaluru. But it turned out to be a

( Originally published on Dec 12, 2023 )