Bengaluru, June 07: In a bizarre turn of events, Bengaluru-based startup KiranaPro found itself battling a major internal breach after one of its employees was fired—allegedly for calling in sick. On the morning of May 23, Deepak Ravindran, founder of KiranaPro, sent a Slack message to team member Lavakumar, asking a work-related question. When Lavakumar didn’t respond immediately, reportedly due to fever, Ravindran terminated his employment just few minutes later.

“You have been terminated from the company for immediate purpose… Those who work on my terms work in the company,” Ravindran wrote in Slack messages seen by The Morning Context. According to insiders, such impulsive terminations are not unusual at the startup. ‘No One Was Fired’: YesMadam Denies Termination of ‘Stressed’ Employees, Says Social Media Posts Were ‘Planned Effort’ To Highlight Workplace Stress.

Soon after his dismissal, Lavakumar—who allegedly still had system access—purportedly erased KiranaPro’s backend code and critical servers, crippling operations and taking the app offline. The deleted infrastructure reportedly included key code repositories and internal data crucial to KiranaPro’s functioning. Although no customer-facing data was compromised, the incident revealed glaring flaws in the company’s offboarding and security processes. ‘Get the F**k out of My Business Right Now’: Angry CEO Baldvin Fires 99 out of 110 Employees Who Failed To Attend Morning Meeting, Netizens React. 

Employee Allegedly Fired Over Taking Sick Leave 

Ravindran later clarified via a public statement that the breach was not the result of an external hack but rather an internal sabotage by a “trusted internal employee.” He emphasised that the individual misused legitimate access to delete server logs and core systems. “It was an attack on trust,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Deepak Ravindra Issues Statement on KiranaPro Chaos

In response, KiranaPro has initiated a forensic audit, tightened access controls, restructured internal protocols, and is pursuing legal action against the accused employee.

KiranaPro, integrated with ONDC, serves 55,000 customers across 50 cities, handling about 2,000 orders daily. What makes it unique is its multilingual, voice-enabled interface—supporting Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, and English—allowing users to place grocery orders using simple voice commands, making it accessible to a broader, tech-shy audience.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 07, 2025 10:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).