Freedom 251 mobile man now arrested for a 200-Cr dry fruits fraud

Noida: Under Ringing Bells Company, Noida-based entrepreneur Mohit Goel made headlines around the world for offering the world’s cheapest smartphone in November 2015. He called them Freedom 251 smartphones and offered them at an astonishingly low price of Rs.251.

On the day of its launch, Ringing Bells received six lakh hits in a minute on their website and has received nearly 7.5-crore orders for the smartphones, which obviously were not delivered.

Even as that memory remains fresh in our minds, Goel was arrested by Noida police on Monday for allegedly cheating scores of dry-fruit traders in what police say is an Rs. 200-crore fraud.

He was running a dry-fruit shop named Dubai dry fruits and spices hub, along with five others. Among police’s immediate recoveries were an Audi, 60 kg dry fruits and some documents, a report by Times of India said.

Noida police said they had received at least 40 written complaints of fraud against Goel’s company from traders across the country in Punjab, Haryana, UP, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and a few other states.

This was, however, not the first time Mohit Goel was on the police radar after the Freedom 251 mobile conundrum. He was detained in 2017 once, for allegedly defrauding a Delhi-based company for Rs. 16 lakh. Again in 2018,  Goel has been arrested by the police in an extortion case for allegedly trying to extort money for settling a rape case in Delhi.