Shashi Arora, CEO and Managing Director of Airtel Payments Bank has quit from his post following the controvercy which made the government put a temporary ban on Airtel for conducting aadhaar based e-KYC verification for the mobile subscribers.
In a statement, the company stated that Shashi will now explore opportunities outside Airtel and the company wishes him all the luck in his future endeavours. It also added that Shashi has been an instrumental executive in company’s growth story. He first led the expansion of Airtel in various circles and then set up the DTH business before taking over the Airtel Payments Bank and building it from scratch.
Shashi Arora has been holding instrumental roles within Airtel since 2006. In 2016, he was appointed as CEO of the newly formed Payments Bank.
He was under attack after UIDAI suspended Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting aadhaar-based verification of their customers. This came after Airtel was allegedly using aadhaar details of the mobile subscribers to open their payment bank accounts without the consent.
On Thursday, UIDAI gave a little relief to Airtel to allow the company to conduct e-KYC for the mobile customers temporarily till 10th January. However, the identificatio authority did put a condition of returning over 130 crores of subsidy money which Airtel had deposited in the bank accounts of LPG customers without their consent. Also, the judgement added that the suspension will continue to be in effect for Airtel Payments Bank till the enquiry is over.