Mumbai: Balkrishna Industries hits back, says Rajan Bidaye 'breached company trust'

On the allegation that senior management of India's leading tire manufacturer company Balkrishna Industries (BKT) was involved in kidnapping, threatening, criminal trespass, outrage of modesty and picking personal items of one retired official - Rajan Bidaye, the company has hit back by saying Bidaye was involved in "breach of trust" and was in close communication with BKT's competitors.

Three days back, India Today had reported that on February 6, 2017, Bidaye - a senior deputy general manager (technology) and a retired official of BKT had filed a First Information Report (FIR) at Tilaknagar Police Station against ten senior officials including managing director Arvind Poddar, under Section 452, 354, 509, 368, 380, 504 and 506.

VP Mathur, senior vice president HR, BKT responded to queries of India Today saying all the allegations made by Bidaye are false.

Mathur said, "BKT has filed an FIR in January 2017 against Rajan Bidaye for stealing the company property being IP and drawings and selling the same to competitors. In order to divert attention and to harass the company and its officials, Bidaye has concoted some stories and filed this FIR which is absolutely false. BKT denies each and every allegation in the FIR."

On behalf of BKT, Ashok Jain, vice president - legal and compliances, had filed an FIR against Bidaye on January 9, 2017 at N M Joshi Marg police station under Section 381 and 408. The FIR has alleged that Bidaye was involved in sharing BKT's sensitive, secret and intellectual properties with BKT's competitor.

As per the Indian Penal Code, Section 381 is for committing theft in respect of any property in the possession of his master or employer, and Section 408 is criminal breach of trust by an employee.

The FIR said, "Examination of Bidaye's electronic data revealed that he possessed all sensitive information of `tire samples' in his laptop and personal emails. Without BKT's permission, for his own benefit and to hurt the company's business plans, Bidaye unprofessionally got involved into committing theft."

Talking to India Today, Jain said, "Whatever information and evidences the company had has been handed over to police officials. Based on that, the police were satisfied that there was a prima facie case they have taken cognizance of that."

Also read: Mumbai: Rejecting his plea to quit, seniors kidnap, drag 58-year-old to office

Details such as Bidaye's appointment letter, extension letter, copies of email exchanges and CCTV footages has been given to police by BKT for further investigation. "From my understanding, till now, Bidaye has not been summoned or interrogated. As of now, the police is taking all evidences from the company and later would work on its action plan," Jain said.

COMPANY TRUST

As per the FIR details, the company officials came to know that Bidaye "breached the trust" between October and November 2016. That time, he had crossed 58 age and was working on the extension period, specially offered by the company after seeing his past good conduct and records.

"We got to know about these things on October 28, 2016. Even Bidaye got the hint that his misdeeds have been exposed. Next day, when Bidaye was expected in the office he took sick leave. In order to safeguard our sensitive information which was present in Bidaye's laptop, the company decided to send a team to his home. Even, during confrontation, Bidaye failed to reply how the sensitive information related to BKT's tire products was uploaded on his desktop and what he was upto," Jain said.

Pravin Padwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Zone 3, Mumbai Police admitted that his team is investigating the case. "There is evidence in the complaint filed by BKT and N M Joshi Marg Police Station", Padwal confirmed not revealing much inofrmation about his further action plan.

However, Bidaye remained unavailable to respond on BKT's FIR, but his advocate Mohan Tekavade said, "I and my client are unaware about these developments. He has not been summoned or informed about this FIR. But still, we maintain the same that my client had been harassed by the company in fear of losing Bidaye to its competitors."

Earlier, while talking to India Today, Bidaye had stated that he has no such plans to join any other company in future, rather "enjoy his retired life", but he expects "law should take its course", against BKT's officials for causing mental and physical harassment to both.

No doubt, it would be quite interesting to see who comes clean after the investigation, Bidaye or BKT?

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