MUMBAI: DTH provider Independent TV Network has abruptly shut its services and scores of distributors and customers in Uttar Pradesh have been left in the lurch. A message on its website reads: “Dear customers, our services are suspended on account of satellite signal disconnection. Same are expected to resume only after June 22nd, 2019. Inconvenience is regretted.”

Recently, the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had ordered it to clear its dues to Antrix Corporation by 12 June or else face a disconnection. It had to pay Rs 9 crore to Antrix or Rs 15 crore in the form of a bank guarantee.

It is likely that the DTH operator was unable to pay as per the court order and hence Antrix disconnected its signal. The matter will further come up for hearing on 2 July.

As per reports from local media, the company owners and officers have their phones switched off and can’t be contacted. The super distributors and the distributors of the company are complaining that the network had accumulated more than Rs 2 crore in the form of advances and commissions.

The DTH provider is a property of Garvit Innovative Promotors Ltd, which is currently in the news for the high-level multi-crore ‘Bike Bot scam’. If reports are to be believed, the distributors are now contemplating to approach TRAI and Ministry of Corporate Affairs against the company and its directors including Sachin Bhati.

The company was launched in 2018 and was active in the state of Uttar Pradesh and had 26 distributors in just Meerut and Saharanpur division. It had more than 90 thousand subscribers in the division.