Click to play videoMumbai: It’s a fight between two of India's biggest business houses. Tata Group company VSNL has caught one of their employees allegedly passing on sensitive corporate information to arch rival Reliance Communications.
A case of hacking and misappropriation under the IT Act has been registered, and the event looks set to shake corporate India.
Slip into a room, switch on a laptop and download sensitive information in a handy pen drive – Bipasha Basu makes it look so easy in Corporate.
And it was almost as easy for Prashant Indulkar, when he allegedly passed on sensitive information to business rivals.
Indulkar is the personal assistant to VSNL MD N Srinath and was reportedly passing on information to an employee of the ADA group for several months.
Some of the information allegedly passed on by Indulkar include:
- A possible broadband cable deal with Egyptian telecom company Orascom
- Details of a VSNL tender for an African Network
- The acquisition plan made by VSNL for Sri Lankan operator SunTel
- Most vitally – information on a court case currently on between VSNL and Reliance Communications company Flag Telecom
The Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Cell have launched a full investigation and charged Indulkar under the IT Act.
Indulkar’s and bail has been denied and he will remain in police custody till February 15 even as the contents of his computers are being inspected.
"Espionage charge is yet to be proven but we have send the CPU and the Pen drive to the forensic lab to establish the charges," said Joint CP (Law and Order) Arup Patnaik.
The remand application of Indulkar clearly says that although there is no official complaint from VSNL, but the Tatas have pointed fingers at a senior Reliance executive Gaurav Wahi.
Wahi was questioned by the police but let off for lack of evidence. "That fellow has applied for anticipatory bail for which we are preparing," said Patnaik.
What seemed to be a simple case of cheating and misappropriation, for a payoff of just Rs 40,000, is now opening up a can of worms pointing to a bitter corporate rivalry aimed at settling old scores.
And if sources are to be believed, the names that have emerged are mere pawns in a much bigger power struggle between two of India's largest business houses and this battle is likely to get murkier as the real story unfolds.
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