Realme India head Madhav Sheth steps down, Michael Guo to take charge: Sources

Realme India head Madhav Sheth has stepped down, multiple sources told ET.
It’s not immediately clear if Sheth has left the company. Sheth’s replacement is also not yet known.
A Realme India executive declined to comment.

The fast growing Chinese smartphone brand has recently gone through internal restructuring, after its director of sales, Deepak Nakra resigned in December. In his place, Nisar Naikoo will be taking over the offline retail business, while Dipesh Punamiya will be looking after the brand’s AIoT business.

Sheth was the face of the company in India and is also the president of Realme’s international business, looking after the business in Europe and India. He reported directly to Realme CEO and founder, Sky Li.

While reasons for Sheth’s resignation is not clear, industry sources said the brand has been facing legal challenges related to its distributors in several states.

Some months back, around 22 area distributors of Realme in Maharashtra filed a first information report (FIR) against Eagle Electronics India Private Ltd. (EEPL) and its directors, alleging a fraud of Rs 60-70 crore for not sending stocks of mobile phones to them after taking advances.

Eagle Electronics India was the zonal distributor appointed by Realme for North and South Maharashtra, Marathwada, and Konkan regions from 2019.

The distributors alleged that Eagle Electronics India took advance payments before the goods were delivered, but the delivery would take three-four days as Realme’s Pune warehouse did not receive stocks regularly.