Sanjay Kapoor mulls legal action against Micromax

Sanjay Kapoor, who resigned as the chairman of Micromax Informatics Ltd in August, is considering legal action against the handset maker and its directors, a media report said on Friday.

The Economic Times reported also that Kapoor was, in fact, asked to step down from the position amid allegations that he misappropriated fuel bills. The report said that Kapoor denied the accusations in his resignation letter to the Micromax board and said that the company's top brass had cooked-up the allegations to deny him stock options.

The resignation letter, dated July 27, referred to a July 10 letter from Micromax promoter Rahul Sharma terminating Kapoor's services. In his letter, Kapoor said the bills were presented by the fuel station directly to Micromax and questioned the company on why he was not challenged when the bills were presented and payments cleared.

The report said Micromax had promised Kapoor, a former CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd, about 1 per cent of the company in stock options when he joined in June 2014. The Micromax board accepted Kapoor's resignation on August 1 and revoked the stock options.

Micromax is the second-largest player in India's booming mobile-phone market, after the local unit of South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is rethinking its proposed $1-billion infusion into Micromax, according to separate media reports. Alibaba's trouble in its home market of China, where it has suffered massive stock-market losses, is largely the reason for the delay. The reports also suggested that the discussion had hit a roadblock over the terms of the deal.