Mohit Goel the CEO of Ringing Bells, the company behind “Freedom 251” – the world cheapest smartphone, has been arrested on fraud charges.
Mr Goel was arrested following a complaint that his company had not supplied the handsets that a phone distribution company had paid for.
The launch of the sub $4.00 smartphone was greeted with pomp and pageantry in February 2016. The demand for the smartphone was so high that the company’s website on which pre-orders were taken, crashed within a couple of hours after the launch of the phone.
According to the Indian Police, the arrest was made after a distribution company, Ayam Enterprises, filed a complaint that it paid Ringing Bells Rs3 million ($45,000), but had only received handsets worth only Rs1.3 million.
It alleged that Ringing Bells had failed to supply the handsets or return the money to the distributor despite several reminders.
It is reported Ringing Bells ran into trouble when some 30,000 customers paid for the phone on Ringing Bells’ online site and were promised delivery of the handset by June — a promise the company failed to meet.
Mobile phone industry analysts were sceptical about the cheap smartphone and enthusiasm for Goel’s phone faded after supplies stopped.
