Ex-Brainvisa Employee and Founder of Enthuse Technologies, Samir Inamdar, Arrested

This is an incident that clearly shows how cut-throat and competitive the eLearning industry has become in India. As smaller companies fight to survive and retain clients, some are resorting to questionable practices in their quest for a share of the pie. Mr. Samir Inamdar is not a stranger to this industry, having first worked with Maximize Learning (subsequently aquired by Techbooks/Aptara) and then having joined Brainvisa (subsequently aquired by Indecomm Global Services) before moving on to start his own eLearning company by the name of Enthuse Technologies.

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"The cyber crime cell of the city police on Saturday arrested Samir Inamdar on charges of violation of copyright laws allegedly leading to a loss of Rs 100 cr to a city-based e-learning firm.

According to a press release by the police, Inamdar had been dismissed from Brainvisa in 2006 and formed his own e-learning company subsequently. However, he illegally retained possession of Brainvisa's product demonstrations and their source codes, and later tried to pass these off as his company's products to potential clients.

Inamdar's lawyer and friend refuted the charges, saying that he was "innocent" and was "being framed".

According to a press release issued by Brainvisa, Inamdar was employed in key positions in Brainvisa Technologies Pvt Ltd, Pune and Brainvisa Inc, US. During his stint in the company, he had access to its products, demonstrations, source codes, proprietary data and confidential information. After being dismissed from service, he illegally copied this data and information.

The press release further said that Inamdar then started his own e-learning company, Enthuse Technologies Pvt Ltd. The Brainvisa management recently learnt that Inamdar and his associates had uploaded product demonstrations originally developed by them, along with their source code, on Enthuse's official website. Inamdar was allegedly soliciting clients by passing off the products as Enthuse's own, the press release stated.

Brainvisa expects to potentially suffer business losses to the tune of US $ 9.5 million annually as a result, the release added. The company has pegged the value of the intellectual property and confidential information allegedly in Inamdar's possession at US $ 500,000."

More here.

UPDATE - 24, JUNE, 2009 - Asma Thorve, ex-Vice President of Brainvisa also arrested by Pune police for providing Brainvisa data to Samir Inamdar. More here.

Comments

[Abhishek]

Any further updates on the happenings? I am quite keen to know the proceedings of this case.

In my opinion, this type of data hacking and related cyber crimes should be delt with due deligence. However, lot of facts are required (as expressed from industry people) to know the bigger picture.

Just few pointers to think (in my opinion) .......

- When those key clients/project that Mr. Inamdar took with him, came to Brainvisa?

- If Brainvisa got those 'key' clients with Mr. Inamdar as he moved to Brainvisa from his previous employer Maximize Learning, how good it would be for Brainvisa to complain against this?

- What would be the total turnover of Brainvisa (for sure more than 300 crores) as one key person was able to drag projects worth 50 crores per year? And they have quite a handful of such genius with them.

- If stories are true, Mr. Inamdar is worth mentioning to manage clients from company to company with his sheer commitment and relationship.

Look forward for some more inputs from industry people. :)

[Sandeep]

I was wondering what happened with regards to the above case and today I saw a few replies and I thought I could respond to the point state by me as "Poor Hand Over"
The answer is Yes! There are ways to do this. First one would be have a very good DLP initiated ( Data Leak Protection Program) Companies like Norton and McAfee can assist you in this. Two, all data is trackable so on handover use softwares that can track the digital trial ( like a jet stream) it will tell you if the data has left from the system or been uploaded somewhere. And probably you can buy systems without a writer or USB disabled. And yes before you reply by saying senior mgmt. This is followed in top orgs even for Sr. Mgmt.

In short it has been noticed since we dont apply these, we like to provide an excuse and yes every company is expected to search before you handover the clean chit to any employee at any level.

Merry Xmas to the team at Learned Man!

Good luck!

[Anonmyous]

I would like to answers all of the comments above in points

1) Poor Handover or clean chit in handover - If an senior employee has copied a company data on to his personal hard disk or home machine, how do you think a company can ensure that this hasn't been done. Do you expect the company to search after handover process

2) Brainvisa sleeping for 2 years - If you know Indian laws or any laws, you would know that a solid proof is needed to take any action. It is just possible that brainvisa didn't have any proof to register the complain

3) Trap - again, point 2 above is applicable and also you should see the complain and evidence submitted as part of complain to make a judgement in trap and reality.

4) I think any person associated elearning industry would know and this practice is very prevelant in the industry and till now companies have just shied away from taking any steps due to lengthy legal procedures and weak cyber laws. This I guess would set a good example for future

[Sandeep]

It was very intresting to read this news about copyright infringement.

What suprised me in this whole fiasco was that the article mentioning the firm Brainvisa sueing the accused for damages worth 100crs, which is quite a sum in the elearning faternity.

Secondly, to quote a line from the above article "After being dismissed from service, he illegally copied this data and information." - This clearly shows the poor handover procedures in this company which in turn can be argued that the accused could be or possibly be absolutely not guilty if the company has given a clean chit during his handover. And which gets me thinking how many more 100crs cases will we hear about owing to this?

What I personally feel is Mr. Inamdar has used his business acumen to win clients which seems to be a painful dent to Brainvisa.

This seems to be a classic story of "Sour Grapes"

Will be keen to know the updates on this event personally.

[Pradip]

Tough competition... Really, it seems that the brain of Brainvisa was in sleeping state for 2 years.

[Rahul]

I thiink it may be a Trap, as mentioned in the article , Mr.samir resigned in 2006 and now he is being charged in 2008?

i am not sure but as per my knowledge these people were Give a very hard competition to Brain visa which they could not bear.