The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Company director held on software theft charge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 16, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Company director held on software theft charge

Staff Reporter

He allegedly downloaded technical information and tried to market it abroad

CHENNAI: The Central Crime Branch police have arrested a technical director of a digital electrical metre manufacturing company on charges of stealing company software and trying to sell it abroad.

S.Balu, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cyber Wing, Central Crime Branch, alleged that P. Rathinavel, a technical director in Omni Agate, a company involved in the manufacturing of digital electricity meters, using computer aided design and software had stolen the software from the firm and himself floated a company which tried to tie up with a Korean firm to sell the software and design to manufacture digital meters.

Police alleged that he downloaded the technical information and the software in a compact disc from his office and illegally took them away. Moreover, he employed several persons from Omni Agate to the company floated by him. When this came to light, the Managing Director, Elangovan, filed a complaint with the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner, R. Nataraj last week.

Mr Elangovan said his company was supplying digital electricity meters to Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh besides Tamil Nadu. He said that as per the World Bank norms all conventional electricity meters should be replaced with digital ones.

The Central Crime Branch police after investigation arrested Rathinavel on Wednesday and filed cases against him under the Information Technology Act and under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) and 408 (criminal breach of trust by a clerk or servant).

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