In a case of software theft, CBI has registered a case against Niraj
Dubey, an employee of AKS Software and schemed to arrest him from the
Delhi airport, while he was trying to flee.
He was arrested on the charges of stealing source programs for
software, which was created for mission-critical business application
known as Agriculture Management System (AMS). This software has been
developed by Delhi-based AKS Software and marketed internationally by
Amity Software. It is a lead product of AKS Software and is being used
in more than 100 sugar companies across the world.
Speaking to The DQ Week, Anil Kumar, MD, AKS Software opined that,
in the software industry the source code of the software is always the
property of the employer and it holds the Intellectual Property Right
(IPR) on it. The software companies sell only a 'license' to use
software products. He further said, "In order to support AMS
installation at Kakira Sugar in Uganda, we were supposed to depute our
executive at the customer site and Dubey has been involved with
implementation of this project." According to Kumar, it was discovered
later, that Dubey, who had complete access to the servers had conspired
to steal the source code of AMS as well as other software from AKS
office. "Dubey was working with another company in March 2010.
Initially, we lodged an FIR with the Sarojini Nagar police station on
April 7, but unfortunately the police was not doing much in this case,
so we registered a complaint with CBI on April 10. We came to know that
he was in Gorakhpur and later on tracking his mobile we discovered that
he was in Ghaziabad," Kumar quoted. The CBI further contacted
immigration office and came to know that Dubey intended to take a Kenya
Airways flight to Nairobi on April 11 at 9:45 pm.
The agency deployed its sleuths in civil clothes at all the airport
terminals. Dubey arrived at the airport with his brother and seven
henchmen. There was a brief scuffle between the CBI team and Dubey's
goons. Finally CBI nabbed them with the help of airport security staff.
A laptop, CD and pendrive that carried source code of the software were
recovered from his possession. He was taken into CBI custody and after
being produced in the court he was sent to Tihar jail for judicial
custody. After spending a month in jail, Dubey finally managed to get a
bail. The case is still under investigation by the Cyber Crime division
of the CBI and the laptop and CD have been sent to forensic lab. The DQ
Week tried to contact CBI's Investigation Officer, Balasubramaniam but
however, it was learnt that he had gone for a month-long leave.