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India’s biggest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, has filed a First Information Report (FIR) against its former employee for stealing confidential data to help upcoming Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Bharti Airtel alleged that Yasir Majid, who left the company in April this year, had copied and downloaded confidential information for the possible use of Jio before leaving the company.

"(Yasir Majid) after having been relieved from the services of the company (Airtel), took up employment with M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd...It thus became evident that the said Mr Yasir Majid downloaded, copied and extracted the aforementioned confidential financial data/information of the company for his own use and the use thereof by his current employer M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., who is a business competitor of the company," said the FIR filed by the police, a copy of which was viewed by Economic Times.

Majid had joined Jio on April 27 this year and the report is dated June 22, filed in the Infocity police station in Bhubaneswar.
The FIR stated that the confidential information was valuable for the business competitor of the company, which could be used to form its business strategy.

The said data included details of locations of Airtel's base stations used to transmit airwaves and plans for future installations of such equipment.

News report in ET stated that the data was highly confidential and had financial information about the company's BTS wise activation gross revenue details for the Jammu & Kashmir service area. A power point presentation used at the zonal business manager's meeting on February 15 was also there.

Majid, who was with the company for nearly 10 years in Jammu & Kashmir, was transferred to Odisha on March 2 as the distribution head of the circle. Majid subsequently resigned his position on April 13, to be effective April 24.

"As a responsible corporate, Reliance Jio lays the greatest emphasis on ethical conduct by all its employees. It is an integral part of our Corporate Value System. We will inquire into this matter," a spokesperson for Reliance Jio Infocomm said in a statement.

Speaking to ET, Majid denied any wrongdoing. "I have already told Airtel twice today (Wednesday) that I did not transfer any data. I have done nothing illegal. They (Airtel) said they will again have a chat with me tomorrow (Thursday)." He added that Jio authorities hadn't spoken to him on this matter.

Airtel will face a tiff competition from Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio, which will launch commercial 4G operations during December.

(Image: Indiatimes)