• FREEDOM 251, a smartphone copy of Rs 251 is nothing but fraud


• Its a Rs 4,000 Adcom Ikon 4 phone in fraudulent manner offered at Rs 251. It's cheating..


• The company Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd is a bogus company formed on September 16, 2015 with Delhi address paid up capital of few lacs


• The promoter, owner do not have experience, financial net worth, land workshop warehouses other infrastructure or finance


• They have not given any details about production, assembling or any resources


• I talked to TRAI Chairman & requested ‪#‎TRAI‬ & ‪#‎TelecomMinistry‬ to check the Abnormal Unusual Offer of ‪#‎FR_EDOM‬ 251 mobile set @ Rs 251


• Authenticity objective b checked


• Freedom251 not subsidised nor certified nor registered by any Govt Dept/Agency


• It seems that Smartphone @ ₹251 is a Big Scam

In the past too, Somaiya has raised objections to several BJP-led state projects. In 1998, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) govt implemented the Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp Ltd (SPPL), a slum rehabilitation project for Mumbai. This scheme promised two lakh houses to resettle 40 lakh slum families.

The then Maharashtra Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain launched the scheme. However, Kirit Somaiya had raised his doubts about the viability of the SRD project keeping in mind the 'downward' trend in real estate prices in the city. "The project means not rehabilitation of slums, but rehabilitation of builders. Each builder will make a neat profit of Rs 250 per square feet on the construction cost for every house he builds," he is quoted by The Indian Express.

The mobile industry body Indian Cellular Association (ICA) also wrote to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday to get into the depth of the issue, saying the rate could not be below Rs 3,500 even after a subsidised sale.

Former Union Minister of Science and Technology Murli Manohar Joshi at the launch of Freedom 251. (PTI)

Ringing Bells response to reports

Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha said the funding of the Freedom 251 project would be met by the promoter family of the company that is 'engaged in agri-commodities business' in Uttar Pradesh.

"Today the funding is from the promoters from the agri-belt and this is the capital of three generations...The investment in a plant will be roughly Rs 250 crores. These are modular plants, you can yourself assess. With the volume, we are going to scale up each line. We are starting off with two plants one in Noida and another in Uttaranchal and we expect to cascade this further as I unravel the right permutation from taxes point of view particularly GST," he added.