Bharti Airtel, india’s largest mobile operator, has filed a First Information Report (FIR) against a former employee of the company. The lawsuit alleges that the employee, one Yasir Majid, has downloaded and copied confidential data from the company before leaving employment in April this year. Majid then took up employment with the soon-to-be-launched Reliance Jio Infocomm, leading Airtel to believe that he has traded confidential company secrets for the benefit of his new employer. Majid has spent 10 years with Airtel, mostly in Jammu and Kashmir.
“(Yasir Majid) after having been relieved from the services of the company (Airtel), took up employment with M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. It thus became evident that the said Mr Yasir Majid downloaded, copied and extracted the aforementioned confidential financial data/information of the company for his own use and the use thereof by his current employer M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., who is a business competitor of the company,” said the Economic Times report, quoting the FIR filed by Airtel.
Airtel has a 23 per cent market share in India, while new-entrant Jio, which obtained a pan-India 2.3GHz licence five years ago, announced recently it will commercially launch services in December, following an “extensive beta launch”. It is running out of time since operators are required to roll out 4G service across 90 per cent of the cities and 50 per cent of rural areas within five years of receiving spectrum. On the other hand, Jio is expected to usher in a radical change in the booming mobile landscape of the country with its disruptive tariff structure and attractive offers for the end user.
Jio Infocomm is a part of Reliance Industries, owned by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. In a statement released to the media, the company said that it was looking into the matter. “As a responsible corporate, Reliance Jio lays the greatest emphasis on ethical conduct by all its employees. It is an integral part of our Corporate Value System. We will inquire into this matter,”
Bharti Airtel, owned by billionaire Sunil Mittal, has filed its FIR against Majid in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The accused told the Economic Times: “”I have already told Airtel twice today (Wednesday) that I did not transfer any data. I have done nothing illegal. They (Airtel) said they will again have a chat with me tomorrow (Thursday).”