Sujay Sen Gupta v. State of Haryana

Sujay Sen Gupta v State of Haryana
In the Punjab & Haryana High Court
CRM-M 4365/2012 (O&M)
Before Justice Rajan Gupta
Decided on March 06, 2012

Relevancy of the case: Downloading and transmitting data from a computer for dishonest purposes.

Statutes & Provisions Involved

Relevant Facts of the Case

The Petitioner was the president of the Global Market Research Division of the complainant M/s Technova India Pvt. Ltd. Hence, he had access to highly confidential information such as the business models, client database and strategies.
Petitioner along with the co-accused Yajana Prakash misappropriated confidential proprietary information for business diversion to entities like “CATALISE” and “CIBC”, consequently causing a huge loss to the complainant company.
Furthermore, the petitioner and another accomplice, Ritesh Dudeja defrauded the complainant by establishing a new company and owning substantial shares in it. The prosecution had furnished email proof to show the same.
Therefore, the complainant filed an FIR and the investigation was transferred to the Economic Offences Wing of the Gurgaon Police, which sought a custodial investigation of the petitioner. The petitioner here has applied for pre-arrest bail.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

The petitioner’s counsel argued that the offences alleged don’t require custodial interrogation. Furthermore, the IT Act has the necessary provisions for dealing with the offences.

Opinion of the Bench

The bench emphasized the need for a custodial interrogation since it believed that the accused is not likely to cooperate if armed with a protective order. In addition, this interrogation could elicit how the accused downloaded and leaked confidential information.
The bench also viewed that the petitioner’s prayer was meritless.

Final Decision

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