The makers of the world’s cheapest smartphone Freedom 251, Ringing Bells, have been booked in a case by a private firm for non-payment of funds. The controversies around the company and the smartphone haven’t stopped, and probably will not considering the shadiness of the company.
According to reports, Ringing Bells has been summoned by the Delhi Court in a Rs. 2 crore cheque bounce case. The complaint has been filed by Aryan Infratech Pvt. Ltd.(AIPL) accusing the Managing Director of the company, Mohit Goel and its Directors Anmol Goel and Sumit Goel on non-payment despite cheque bounce.
Apparently, even after the cheque got bounced and Ringing Bells was given another chance of paying the private company, the payment was not honoured and there was no transaction between the two entities.
The next hearing on this matter will be on April 28 next year. ”There is sufficient material available on record to summon all the accused. Therefore, a prima facie case punishable under section 138 Negotiable Instrument Act… Issue summons to all the accused,” the court said.
AIPL approached the court on the grounds on non-payment of funds to the company. This is not the first time Ringing Bells has been taken to the court, as previously the company has been booked for cheating the customers. Eventually the firm started selling the cheapest smartphone, but nothing has been heard about it ever since.
Is this company fraudulent or bankrupt?
When Ringing Bells was launching the Freedom 251 smartphone, it completely went all out that they will be making losses on the phones in the beginning, but will eventually even-out thanks to scale of economy.
At this moment, if you try to visit Ringing Bells’ website, you will get an error message with the URL stating ‘”, which means that the payment is due by the company. You can no longer visit the website even if you wanted to.
Even the customers who were hoping to get the smartphone delivered haven’t heard from the company yet. Yes it was cash-on-delivery and these customers are not losing out on money, but they have lost out on a promise of a cheap smartphone.
We cannot completely rule out that the company is not fraud, simply because it has been falling out on its promises from the very first day. Fortunately the Government was smart enough to crack the whip at the right time and secure the consumers who had paid for the smartphone.
It looks like Ringing Bells is still trying to work on improving its manufacturing business, distributor business and procurement. Also, the company clearly doesn’t have enough funds to produce such smartphones on a large scale, and might be going into bankruptcy soon.
The next hearing on this case is in April next year, which leaves Ringing Bells with a good 5 months to think about funds and its production line. If it wants to get back into business then it must rethink its strategy to get into the market with the smartphone that made headlines around the globe.
