Freedom 251: Adcom Ready to take legal action against Ringing Bells

After the announcements of World’s cheapest smartphone by Ringing Bells, the company is having tough time for last few days. All the news coming out on Freedom 251 is negative for Ringing Bells.

The latest blow to Noida-based startup Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd. that last month launched with much fanfare the world’s cheapest Rs. 251 (less that $4) smartphone, domestic feature phone brand Advantage Computers’ (Adcom) on Friday announced it may consider legal action against Ringing Bells.

Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd launched “Freedom 251” on Feb 17th, 2016 in New Delhi. The launch was done in the presence of veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi. At the event, the company showcased the Rs.251 Smartphone Freedom 251 Prototype to media which turned out to be Adcom handset. Adcom’s founder and chairman Sanjeev Bhatia said Adcom is not manufacturing Freedom 251 and they have no relation to Ringing Bells who launched Freedom 251. Adcom is all set to take legal action against Ringing Bells for showcasing their Rs.3,600 Smartphone as Rs.251 Freedome 251.

Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha told IANS that it had only given Adcom handsets as “samples” to a section of the media and the real Freedom 251 will be a new product with all promised features.

“We are deeply grieved by this incident where our mobile phone has been presented to masses for Rs.251, and therefore, would not hesitate from taking any legal actions against the company, in case the entire fiasco impacts Adcom’s brand name or subsequently we face any other kind of losses,” Bhatia said in a statement on Friday.

“Yes, it is true that although we sold the handsets to Ringing Bells earlier, like we sell Adcom mobiles to lakhs of users, we were absolutely unaware of the reselling plans of the company in question,” he added.

“Furthermore, we still haven’t been able to evaluate their pricing policy as we sold the handsets at Rs.3,600 per unit (to Ringing Bells),” Bhatia said.

Read more: Is Freedom 251: Is it a re-branded Adcom Ikon 4?

At present the Noida based Ringing Bells Office in Noida is shut due to some ownership issue. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also questioned Mohit Goel, CEO of Ringing Bells, this week over the pricing of the smartphone.

Ringing Bells also claimed that they have refunded all the amount collected from the 30,000 users who had paid for Freedom 251 booking through their official website www.freedom251.com. The company had also announced, the phone will be sold only thorough Cash on Delivery.