Gurbaksh Chahal, chairman and CEO of online advertising company RadiumOne in California, on Friday pleaded not guilty to 47 charges related to domestic violence.
Chahal, 31, was arrested on Monday from his home at The Infinity Towers, a luxury condominium in San Francisco, California, for allegedly beating his girlfriend.
Stephanie Stillman of the District Attorney’s Office told rediff.com that Chahal’s bail had been set at $150,000, but was raised to $1 million.
"Chahal has been out on bail after posting the $1 million bail today," said Stillman.
"The amount was raised because of the severity of the charges," Stillman said and reiterated that Chahal is facing 47 charges, 45 of which are felonies.
“This is a serious case," she said.
The charges include assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, battery and domestic violence, according to the District Attorney's office.
Chahal has been ordered to stay away from his girlfriend and his passport has been seized.
According to SFExaminer.com, Chahal allegedly hit and kicked his girlfriend 117 times over a half-hour period on Monday morning, according to prosecutors.
The entire assault was caught on video, claimed the website. He also allegedly prevented the young woman from breathing for 20 seconds during a dispute, said prosecutors.
In the court documents, his prosecutors said Chahal was angry when he learned his girlfriend had gone to Las Vegas with another man and cheated on him.
Chahal's attorney Stuart M. Gordon told rediff.com, "This is all blown up."
Chahal has told Gordon that he did not hit the girl and the allegations were not true.
He claimed that the charges against him were severe because he was a successful man and the charges had been blown up.
Gordon admitted that he had not watched the video in question but had seen photographs of Chahal’s girlfriend, who, he claimed, did not have a single mark on her body and looked happy
"I don't know why they have added so many charges," he said.
"We have to bring that video out. This is very important and everybody has to know the real fact," said Gordon.
He added that Chahal, whom he has represented for a long time, was neither aggressive nor violent.
Gordon claimed that the girl had dropped the charges on Thursday. She has since stated that she was not subjected to violence and is not pressing any charges.
The issue will be taken up by the court on September 13.
"Now we have to wait and see what the judge has to say," said Gordon.
Chahal was born to Indian parents from Punjab.
He launched his first company ClickAgents when he was 16 years old. He sold his second business, online advertising company BlueLithium, to Yahoo for $300 million in 2007.
Image: Gurbaksh Chahal ' Photograph Courtesy: http://about.me/gchahal
