Rajesh Agarwal of Micromax mobiles
The co-founder and director of mobile company Micromax has been sent into custody for seven days after he was caught while allegedly paying a 30-lakh bribe to have an illegally-constructed building owned by him be recognized as legitimate.
Rajesh Agarwal of Micromax Technologies Pvt Ltd was found by the Central Bureau of Investigation at a Municipal Corporation of Delhi official's home on Wednesday night, right after the bribe had allegedly been handed over.
Six people have been arrested with him.
A statement from Micromax said, "Rajesh Agarwal, co-founder, Micromax Informatics Limited has stepped down from his duties and recused himself from the responsibilities. He will focus on the legal proceedings to clear his name of the alleged charges."
The CBI has said that Mr Agarwal negotiated the amount of the kickback down to 30 lakhs from 50. The agency said it had received a tip-off, after having kept Mr Agarwal as well as some MCD officials under surveillance for some time.
Mr Agarwal started Micromax as an IT software company with Manish Tuli in 2000.
Micromax entered the highly competitive mobile handset market in 2008 and currently markets more than 60 handset models. It is now the 12th largest handset manufacturer in the world according to Global Handset Vendor Market share report from Strategy Analytics.