FoxMandal accuses SRGR of data theft FoxMandal files criminal complaint Investigation team reach SRGR office

FoxMandal has filed a criminal complaint with Noida police against its former Partners who have allegedly taken away sensitive, proprietary and confidential documents and data from the firm. Lawyers Ravi Bishnoi, Saroj Kumar Jha, Rajan D Gupta and Akshat Pande had left FoxMandal in 2009 to start their own law firm ‘SRGR Law Offices’.

FoxMandal has filed a criminal complaint with Noida police against its former Partners who have allegedly taken away sensitive, proprietary and confidential documents and data from the firm. Lawyers Ravi Bishnoi, Saroj Kumar Jha, Rajan D Gupta and Akshat Pande had left FoxMandal in 2009 to start their own law firm ‘SRGR Law Offices’.

We understand from sources that the complaint has been filed for cheating, defrauding, criminal breach of trust, impersonation and theft of vital data of FoxMandal. The Complaint has been filed under Sections 65 and 66 of the Information Technology Act 2000.

Speaking to Bar & Bench FoxMandal, Delhi, Managing Partner Som Mandal said, “There is no room for double standard persons in legal profession. We have filed complaints against individuals who have been instrumental in stealing our data”.

It is understood that former partners took away the privileged information of the law firm even though they had signed a confidentiality agreement with FoxMandal. Bar & Bench has information that FoxMandal has proof that clearly establishes theft of data and the same has been shown to the Police.

The Police along with the investigation team today reached the premises of SRGR to carry out investigations and have copied all the data from all the computers and laptops. The investigation went on for about 6-7 hours.

Bar & Bench also spoke to SRGR on this issue. Partner Ravi Bishnoi said, “There has been some investigation going on at our office and we have answered all the queries. Also, some of our data has also been copied. This is an absolutely fictitious complaint that has been filed and the same has been filed to create pressure on us as three of our partners including me have filed recovery suits against FoxMandal. Som Mandal has been time and again threatening me that he will file cases against us. We are going ahead with recovery suits”.

Bishnoi further said, “As far as investigation is concerned, we are cooperating with the same. This complaint has been filed with regard to the fact that we have taken some data from FoxMandal. We left FoxMandal exactly about 2 years 10 days back. It is very clear as to what the motive is. He wants us to withdraw the recovery suits. We will go ahead with recovery suits as we have genuine cases. We are now looking at all the criminal options that we have, to file a case against him because this is an unnecessary harassment that he is trying to cause”.

This is the second time in India that lawyers have been accused like this under the Information Technology Act for stealing electronic data. Earlier, Diljeet Titus had filed a criminal complaint against Lex Counsel under the Act.