Freedom 251 smartphone founder quits; office locked from 2 weeks

Ringing Bells, the parent company responsible for delivering the country’s cheapest smartphone project Freedom 251 has announced that its founder and MD Mohit Goel has quit the firm. The firm had stirred a rage in the country some time back when it announced that it will launch an all-feature smartphone in the country for just Rs 251. Although many experts had their doubts on the feasibility of such project, the firm and the founder were always positive about the result.

Along with Mohit, his wife Dhaarna (Director in Ringing Bells) have also quit giving no clear indication of the way forward. Interestingly, the office of Ringing Bells is also closed from last 2 weeks.

When the project was announced, more than 7 crore people registered for the same, and almost 30,000 registered users had made advance payments. However, facing immense pressure and scrutiny from the regulators and media, the firm reportedly refunded the advance and tweaked the plan to make it a cash-on-delivery offer. The company claims to have delivered 70,000 phones to the registered buyers, but there is no clarity how and when the rest of the order will be fulfilled.

The worst affected are the company dealers who had paid in advance to procure and distribute the smartphones but have no information on the delivery schedule. The firm is yet to clear their dues, and will be exposed to litigations if nothing concrete comes out in short term.