Arhan Technologies’s ex-staffer stole its business secrets and passed them on to a Japanese firm’s Indian arm, his new employerThe state IT authority has ordered a Japanese engineering company’s Indian arm to pay a Pune firm Rs 40 lakh for stealing the latter’s confidential data, including e-mails, in bid to snatch its customers.Endo Kogyo India Private Limited carried out the alleged theft of business secrets with the help of a former employee of the Pune firm, Arhan Technologies. The employee, Ashish Kalmegh, has also been asked to pay damages of Rs 20 lakh to Arhan.Rajesh Aggarwal, secretary of the state information technology department, a quasi-judicial authority, gave the ruling in the case on Wednesday.This is the first time in Maharashtra that a commercial entity has been awarded compensation under the IT Act, which is generally used by the police to investigate cases where objectionable content has been shared online or through mobile networks.Endo Kogyo India and its Japanese parent’s lawyers did not argue or contest the ruling, saying they were in the process of challenging Aggarwal’s earlier decision to admit the petition filed by Arhan Technologies.The Pune-based firm markets engineering products and deals with a number of Japanese manufacturers looking for business in India. Before the alleged theft of its corporate secrets, it had been marketing Endo Kogyo’s products and had tasked Kalmegh with the job.In July 2011, Kalmegh suddenly quit his job and left Arhan Technologies without serving a notice period, the company has said in its petition. Despite quitting, he changed passwords of the company’s e-mail addresses and also took a pen drive containing crucial business information with him.On February 24, 2012, he signed a settlement agreement in which he said that he would stop using the company’s e-mail addresses. But Kalmegh joined Endo Kogyo India, and shortly after its Japanese parent informed Arhan Technologies that it would no longer do business with it. Kalmegh, the petition claims, continued to use Arhan’s e-mails, accessing its data for Endo Kogyo India’s benefit.Two of its mails pertaining to logistics and stores were diverted to two private e-mail addresses. Kalmegh allegedly also began online correspondence with Arhan’s clients.The Pune-based firm then filed a police complaint under the Information Technology Act. The local police found that Arhan had suffered a loss of Rs 60 lakh following the data theft and filed a chargesheet against Kalmegh.The Maharashtra IT secretary relied on the police’s findings to order the Japanese firm’s Indian subsidiary to pay damages.