Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd, the makers of ‘Freedom 251’ smartphone on Friday, got a major relief from the Allahabad High Court against an FIR filed against them when the FIR was declared premature.
Justice B.K. Narayan and R.N. Mishra who were on the division bench ordered that till the next hearing that is on May 18, no coercive step should be taken against the company’s employees.
During the hearing, the bench also ordered the prosecution lawyers to file a reply within two weeks when questioned by the court as to how an offence under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was made out against the owners of Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd, since no positive reply was received.
See Also: BJP leader files FIR against owner of Ringing Bells
In the month of March, a complaint was filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya, on the basis of which an FIR was registered against Ringing Bells director Mohit Goel and company president Ashok Chaddha under Section 420 of the IPC as well as the Information Technology (IT) Act.
The court also gave liberty to the petitioners to move an application for the release of their passports.
“We are very happy with today’s (Friday’s) order. We shall now press for the quashing of the FIR as there is no merit in it and extraneous factors have gone into its lodging. This FIR is a strategy to derail the timely launch of the flagship product of the company,” said Abhishek Vikram, counsel for Ringing Bells.
See Also: Ringing Bells promises to ship Freedom 251 smartphones by June 30
“The company has already sold 28,000 units of its other products and has developed innovative strategies to meet its cost for delivering the smartphone for Rs.251 to its customers. The company’s aim is to reduce the digital divide between urban and rural India by selling the smartphone for Rs. 251,” Vikram added.
Ironically, the ‘Freedom 251’ was launched by the Ringing Bells in February in the presence of veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.
