 "Mob of angry real estate agents attacks start-up NoBroker")
A mob of about 50 brokers this afternoon attacked the office of a start-up called NoBroker in Bengaluru, a usually cool, laidback city known as the Silicon Valley of India. The attackers tried to break into the office and turned violent when they were stopped at the door by employees.
NoBroker is a marketplace connecting house owners and tenants. It cuts off the traditional real estate agents and their hefty fees, while also making the search for suitable accommodation and tenants more efficient with the use of technology.
The 18-month-old site has already made a big impact on the high stakes real estate business in urban India – and brokers are not pleased.
Police rushed to the spot to restrain the troublemakers, filed a non-cognizable report (NCR), and warned them against any future attempts to break into NoBroker premises.
At around 11 am Tuesday, eight brokers landed at the doors of NoBroker. They were shouting, which alerted the staff at the start-up – some of whom rushed to confront the trouble-makers. Amit and Akhil, the founders, came out to have a chat with the brokers.
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A NoBroker employee called the police. The cops asked the founders and a few representatives of the brokers to accompany them to the police station for a discussion. “But after some of us left for the police station, more brokers arrived at our office, many of them drunk. By the end, there were close to 100 of them,” Amit says. The mob tried to break in but the NoBroker staff – also numbering about 100 – stopped them.
Police were called in again. They finally got the situation under control and warned the crowd that they would be charged with attempted murder if they tried to break into NoBroker premises or assault the staff again. This dispersed the crowd.
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.