This Article is From May 18, 2011

Bangalore techie framed in false data theft case

Bangalore: A software engineer, accused of selling data worth crores from his company, was given a clean chit by the police.

The cops stated that the company has foisted a false complaint and does not have proof to substantiate its claim.

Rajeev Bhadarkar (28), was employed with Benipal Technologies owned by Sukhbir Benipal. His employer had lodged a complaint against him on September 17, 2010 with the Koramangala police alleging data theft, among other complaints.

However, a detailed probe by the cops revealed that the company was vexed by his decision to quit, and therefore foisted a false complaint for revenge and to obstruct his career move.

Bhadarkar was working with the company for the past eight months as a code writer and his employer had not provided him or any other employee an offer letter or document of employment at the time of joining. During the period, he was never provided a salary slip.

On August 30, 2010 Benipal asked him and two other employees to leave the company, stating that the codes they had written were not executable. When they asked their employer whether they were being sacked, he informed that they might be taken back if the codes worked.

On September 1, 2010, Benipal called Bhadarkar asking him to rejoin work, as the code was working. When he reached the company, he was told that he would only be paid half the salary since he did not meet the deadline while writing the earlier code.

Bhadarkar agreed initially and at the end of the month collected his salary, but stopped attending office thereafter, as he felt the job lacked security. His employer's attempts to contact him went in vain and he later received an e-mail of threatening nature from Benipal.

Following the e-mail, Benipal filed a complaint of data theft against Bhadarkar. But when police requested him to share server data to aid in the investigation, he refused to cooperate.

PSI Lakshmi Narasimhaiah who investigated the matter said that the case against Bhandarkar has been closed due to insufficient evidence. "We found that the allegation didn't have substance and decided to file a B report," he said.
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