Mumbai: Sanjay Bhargava has stepped down as country director and chairman of the board of satellite broadband company Starlink India. His last working day was 31 December 2021.

The announcement was made on LinkedIn where he posted, “I have stepped down as country director and chairman of the board of Starlink India for personal reasons… my last working day was December 31, 2021. I will have no comments for individuals and media so please respect my privacy.”

Starlink is a division of aerospace company SpaceX led by billionaire Elon Musk. The company announced that it would launch its services in India by 2022 pending regulatory approvals.

Bhargava’s resignation comes weeks after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordered the company to refund the deposits it had collected from Indian customers who had pre-booked a connection. It stated that Starlink was not licensed to offer satellite-based internet services in India and advised consumers to refrain from subscribing to its services until it was granted the requisite permissions.