Know all details about Ola Krutrim’s response to the death of their young employee Nikhil Somwanshi with Reddit posts blaming his USA based boss Rajkiran Panuganti
Nearly two weeks after the body of a 25-year-old machine learning engineer was discovered in Bengaluru’s Agara Lake, troubling allegations have emerged across Reddit and in media reports. Unnamed individuals claiming to be former or current employees suggested that the engineer may have taken his own life due to a toxic work environment and the actions of an allegedly exploitative manager.
Who is Senior Director Rajkiran Panuganti, alleged boss of Nikhil Somwanshi as Ola Krutrim, Bengaluru techie commits suicide
seems like this is the manager https://t.co/VpUgwNMdIz
— Rayan Das (@raydeeam) May 18, 2025
How Ola reacted to the death of Nikhil Somwanshi?
Ola Krutrim clarified that the individual in question had been on personal leave at the time of the incident. The company stated that, while the exact reasons behind the tragedy remained personal and complex, it was committed to cooperating fully with the family and authorities during this difficult time. Referring to the social media discussions that linked the suicide to workplace stress, the company urged the public to refrain from drawing premature conclusions in the absence of verified facts.
View this post on Instagram
Notably, Krutrim reiterated its stance on fostering a healthy and supportive work environment, adding that employee well-being remains one of its top priorities. The incident has sparked conversations about workplace mental health and the responsibilities of tech companies in supporting their employees.
Age 25 Nikhil was a machine learning engineer with Krutrim, the artificial intelligence (AI) unit of Bhavish Aggrawal-led Ola.
He interned at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Bengaluru for three months in 2023, and then had an internship at the IISc as a Natural Language Processing Engineer for six months (from January to June 2024) and the IISc internship displayed Nikhil Somwanshi’s work experience (part of his Master’s thesis) on large language model (LLM) and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)-based chatbot Saathi.
Why is this linkedin page 404https://t.co/Uktn7q5oTi pic.twitter.com/AMGBh8NP0I
— Kapil Patel (@CypherKapil) May 18, 2025
The deceased, identified as Nikhil Somwanshi, was reported missing and later found in the lake on May 8, prompting local authorities to file a First Information Report (FIR) and initiate an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. Somwanshi had joined Krutrim, an AI subsidiary of ride-hailing giant Ola, in August 2024 as a machine learning engineer. His appointment came shortly after he completed his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, where he graduated with a stellar GPA of 9.30.
According to Reddit posts, the employee despite being fresh out of college, was leading a project with two other team members and the viral Reddit post mentions Rajkiran Panuganti as his boss who kept him loaded with work for 7-8 months until he took that break.
“He (Panuganti) just attends the calls, bashes people left, right and centre and disappears since he lives in the US and most of the workforce is here in Bangalore,” the Reddit post claims. “Having not delivered a single product even after a year of joining Krutrim, he is just taking it all out on people.”
Suicide due to work pressure at the OLA, the worst place to work
byu/Kirigawakazuto inindianstartups
Rajkiran Panuganti, PhD, whose LinkedIn account has now been deleted, possesses extensive experience in artificial intelligence and software engineering, currently serving as Senior Director of Foundational LLM Models at Krutrim. Previously, Rajkiran held advisory roles at Codemod, Wyzr, and Nelumbium Capital.
At Microsoft, Rajkiran contributed as Principal Applied Scientist Manager for Microsoft 365 Chat and served as a Senior Software Engineer and he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science from The Ohio State University.
According to reports and social media discussions, Somwanshi was allegedly overwhelmed by excessive workload following the departure of several colleagues, who were believed to have quit due to their experiences with Rajkiran Panuganti, a manager based in the United States. These claims suggest that Nikhil may have been asked to shoulder the responsibilities of multiple team members, placing him under immense pressure.
#JustIn | Karnataka police has registered a case following the alleged suicide of Ola Group Company Krutrim AI employee, Nikhil Somwanshi
Nikhil’s body was found in Agara Lake in Bengaluru & the police registered an FIR based on a complaint from the uncle of the deceased
Police… pic.twitter.com/lWbxiS1iuu
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 19, 2025