The Hindu : New Delhi News : Court won't stay criminal proceedings against lawyers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 14, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Court won't stay criminal proceedings against lawyers

Staff Reporter

First time a lawyer is being prosecuted under I-T Act, 2000

NEW DELHI: : The Delhi High Court has declined to stay criminal proceedings or quash the First Information Report against four lawyers accused by a law firm of cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft of electronic records and hacking into its computer network system.

The case is the first instance of a lawyer being prosecuted under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for allegedly stealing and hacking a computer network system.

The law firm, Titus & Co., filed a complaint with the Delhi police in August 2004 alleging that four lawyers employed by it — Nigerian national Alfred Adebare, Alishan Naqvee, Seema Ahluwalia Jhingan and Dimpy Mohanty — had taken away vast amounts of confidential data from the firm's computer network system.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police, New Friends Colony, registered an FIR against the four lawyers.

They also conducted a raid on the office premises of LexCounsel — the outfit set up by the four lawyers at Alfred Adebare's residence in Delhi — and allegedly found four hard discs containing confidential client information.

The four accused filed a petition in the court that the criminal investigation be quashed, on the plea that they were ``fee-sharing partners'' and should not, therefore, be charged with illegal possession of office electronic records.

However, the court dismissed this plea, saying that the firm's records clearly showed that they were employees and not partners.

In his order on October 4, Mr. Justice S.K. Agarwal directed that the petitioners be released on bail upon furnishing personal bonds for Rs.1 lakh each, with one surety for a like amount and subject to condition that they shall join investigations as and when required; shall not in any manner tamper with the prosecution evidence and shall not leave India without the permission of the trial court.

`Civil dispute given the colour of criminal offence'

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