The Ghaziabad court on Tuesday turned down the bail application of Mohit Goel, the former MD of smartphone company Ringing Bells, and sent him to judicial custody. Mr. Goel was arrested after a complaint by one of the company’s distributor’s regarding non-settlement of accounts.
Proof of refund
Following the hearing, D.M Bhalla, the defence counsel for Mr. Goel told The Hindu that the court had rejected his client’s bail application.
“A First Information Report was lodged for non payment of ₹16 lakh. My client had refunded the money. He transferred the money through RTGS. We furnished the related documents, but the court remained unsatisfied with our reply and rejected the bail application,” Mr. Bhalla said. He added that a fresh application for bail would be moved in the sessions court on Wednesday
On February 22, an FIR was lodged at Sihani Gate police station by Akshay Malhotra, one of the company’s distributors based in Ghaziabad. Mr. Malhotra had alleged in his complaint that the company officials had failed to pay his balance amount of ₹16 lakh. Mr. Goel was arrested then and later sent to 14 days’ judicial custody at Dasna jail.
Apart from Mr. Goel, the FIR names the current managing director and Mr. Goel’s brother Anmol Goel, Mr. Mohit Goel’s wife Dharna Garg who resigned eight months ago as CEO of the company, general manager Sumit Kumar and partner Ashok Chaddha.
More officials held
Mr. Goel was produced before a Ghaziabad court, but the court had slammed the police for not having evidence for sections concerning forgery and criminal conspiracy added to the FIR. During the second hearing, the court had sent Mr. Goel to 14 days’ judicial custody under sections concerning criminal breach of trust and cheating.
The Ghaziabad police have also arrested Mr. Kumar. A resident of Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Mr. Kumar resides at Mandawali in Delhi. He was arrested and ₹14.9 lakh and some documents were recovered.
110 distributors
Company officials said that 95 of 110 distributors have received full payments and the rest have been paid back nearly 60% of the due amounts. The balance payment was to be paid by the end of March.
