After Jio's asserted allegations that channel partners of competitor telcos were inciting and provoking agitators involved in tower disruption, Airtel has written a letter to the telecom department slamming the charges as unjustified and outrageous.

Airtel has told the Department of Telecom that Jio's allegations against it did not demonstrate any evidence that Bharti had any hand in the ongoing issues that the company is facing, and that the complaint should be dismissed "with the contempt that it deserves". The letter by Airtel to Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said the company is aware of a complaint made by Reliance Jio to the department dated December 28, with reference to the disruption of RJIL (Reliance Jio) services due to farmer's protests in Punjab and Haryana.

Airtel noted that a similar allegation had been levelled by Jio in a letter to the telecom regulator earlier in December to which the company had responded.

"The baseless allegation made by Jio that Airtel is behind the farmer agitation to 'sabotage' their network and to force customers to switch to Airtel is therefore simply outrageous," Bharti Airtel's Chief Regulatory Officer Rahul Vatts said in the letter to the DoT dated December 28.

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