HC grants bail to MD, director of firm offering cheapest

The Allahabad High Court today granted bail to the Managing Director and a Director of the Noida-based mobile phone company Ringing Bells which 'had hogged limelight with the launch of "Freedom 251", touted as the world's cheapest smart phone.

A single-judge bench of Justice Pankaj Naqvi granted bail to the company's MD Mohit Goel and Director Sumit Kumar, who have been in jail for the past few months in connection with FIR lodged by Ghaziabad-based company Ayam Enterprises under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sihanigate police station.

In the FIR, the complainant had alleged that it had placed orders worth Rs 30 lakh for "Freedom 251" and "Smart 101" mobile phones, "lured by attractive advertisements", but later found that the products were "not worth the price" and despite repeated requests, an outstanding amount of Rs 16 lakh was not paid back by the accused.

Allowing their bail plea, the court said they be released on "furnishing a personal bond and two heavy sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the court concerned" and "subject to the deposit of their original passports".

The court also laid down a number of conditions "imposed in the nature of justice" to be observed by the petitioners and that default on these counts could be treated by the trial court as "abuse of liberty of bail".

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)