Indian-origin man mistakenly tagged as Piyush Gupta calls out Singapore woman: 'She wasn't confused'
Former CEO of DBS Bank, Piyush Gupta, reacted to a woman who shared a picture with a man claiming it was him. Now, the misidentified man has spoken up.
A man mistakenly tagged as an Indian-origin CEO in a woman’s LinkedIn post has lashed out at her. The woman claimed she had mistaken him for Piyush Gupta in Bali and was prompted correctly by the ex-CEO. In an interview, the Indian-origin man, identified as Kumar H Subramaniam, opened up to set the records straight. According to a report by Mothership, the man claimed that he never intentionally misled the woman into thinking he was Gupta.
Kumar H Subramaniam told the outlet that he cleared the woman’s confusion on the spot when she mistook him for Gupta and allegedly acknowledged this mistaken identity.
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What started it all?
Janney Hujic, in a LinkedIn post, said she had the chance to encounter Piyush Gupta, the former CEO of DBS Bank. “I glanced across the room and thought, ‘That looks an awful lot like Piyush’. Curious, I walked over — and sure enough, it was him. Piyush Gupta, the former CEO of DBS Bank. Casual. Composed. Entirely unassuming,” she wrote.
However, her post was fact-checked by the former CEO himself, who said, “Sorry to disillusion you. That isn’t me!” Hujic responded, “Oh gosh, I've seen you when I was at DBS. I couldn't tell the 2 apart. Kudos to him. In his defense, he had your charms right on, and he said all the right things.”
Subramaniam denies Hujic’s claims:
Subramaniam said he was having lunch with a colleague at a cafe in Bali when Hujic and her companion approached him. They asked if he was Gupta, and according to him, he clarified that he was not the former CEO.
Kumar said: "She and her guy mentioned that they had worked at DBS before and we joked about her pranking her friends that she had bumped into Mr Gupta by chance in public while on their holiday here."
“She and her guy mentioned that they had worked at DBS before and we joked about her pranking her friends that she had bumped into Mr Gupta by chance in public while on their holiday here,” he said, adding, “I never, at any point, said that I was indeed Mr Gupta. I never agreed for my picture to be used to promote any business or social ventures on anyone."
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“I do not condone any such actions of using any resemblance intentional or otherwise to mislead anyone, most importantly Mr Gupta,” he further clarified.
He continued that the colleague with him during the incident could vouch that he never said he was the CEO. “It seems to many that I led her on, but I have no reason nor desire to be exposed to her project in this manner as a third person with a public reputation is involved,” he expressed.
He further stated, “Some have said I may have taken advantage and tried to bed her. I was not and she was with her partner or husband.”
The 58-year-old from Singapore is living in Indonesia for about 25 years and works in Bali as a teacher.
