Micromax co-founder arrested on bribing charges

Company distances itself and calls it a personal misconduct

Update: Following the arrest, Micromax co-founder Rajesh Agrawal has stepped down from his post at the company. The company has also stated that Manish Tuli, who was arrested along with Agrawal, has no relation to Micromax.

Rajesh Agarwal, co-founder, Micromax has stepped down from his duties till cleared of alleged charges.

— Micromax Mobile (@Micromax_Mobile) August 8, 2013

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Micromax clarifies that Manish Tuli has no association with the company.

— Micromax Mobile (@Micromax_Mobile) August 8, 2013

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Earlier: One of the co-founders of mobile phone maker Micromax ‘Rajesh Agrawal’ has been arrested in the Indian capital on bribing charges. According to a report in PTI, Agrawal along another Micromax official named Manish Tuli were caught red-handed by CBI on Wednesday while giving a sum of INR 30 lakhs as bribe to two officials of North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

This money was reportedly being given to help in the clearance for construction of a banquet hall in the Wazirpur area of New Delhi.

According to PTI sources, the initial bribe amount was INR 50 lakhs, which Agrawal and Tuli negotiated down to INR 30 lakhs.

Micromax has issued an statement in regards to the arrests and has cleared distanced itself, which is not at all surprising as the bribe does not seem to be related to the company business, but it is surely going to hamper the brand value.

“The company has nothing to do with alleged personal misconduct of two arrested individuals,” a Micromax Informatics spokesperson told PTI.

To remind you, Micromax is currently the 12^th largest handset manufacturer in the world (as per Strategy Analytics data). It was originally founded back in 1991 by Rajesh Agarwal as a distributor of computer hardware for brands like Dell, HP and Sony. In 1999, Sumeet Arora, Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain joined Agrawal as equal partners in the company but it was only in 2008 that the company started making mobile phones.