Four ex-executives booked for causing loss of ₹1.50-crore to employer

Four former sales executives of Omicron Sensing Pvt Ltd have been accused of violating their contracts, stealing company data and attracting customers by offering discounts from their own start-up. The Parksite police in Mumbai have booked Vishal Bhadkoliya, Nilesh Kansodiya, Pradeep Rathod and Tushar Rathod over allegations that they cost Omicron Sensing INR15m ($204,000) by selling products in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka markets. The four were recruited between April 2015 and April 2017 to handle sales in the three regions, but under their service contract they were not supposed to work elsewhere.

MUMBAI: Four former sales executives of a Ghatkopar-based electronic instruments and control systems supplier have been booked by the police for violating their contracts, stealing crucial company data, and attracting the company’s customers while working with the firm by offering various offers from their newly formed company. This way, they allegedly caused losses to the tune of ₹1.5 crores to the company by selling products in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka markets of the company.

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The Parksite police have booked Vishal Bhadkoliya, Nilesh Kansodiya, Pradeep Rathod and Tushar Rathod - all former employees of Omicron Sensing Pvt Ltd which has its office in Ghatkopar and sells products like pressure instruments, temperature instruments, air quality sensors and level instruments.

According to the police, the case was registered based on a complaint lodged by a director of Omicron Sensing, identified as Harshil Shah.

All four were recruited by the company between April 2015 and April 2017 and were supposed to handle sales for the company in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka. Under their service contract, they were not supposed to moonlight.

The fraud came to light as Bhadkoliya and Kansodiya set up their own company and used to purchase material from the vendors of Omicron Sensing and used to sell the instruments to the customers of Omicron Sensing at discounted rates while in service of the Ghatkopar-based firm.

“They not only stole the confidential product data but also diverted old customers towards them. When they were confronted by the company about it, they accepted that they had committed the crime, but requested the company to not lodge complaints against them by promising to leave the business,” said a police officer from Parksite police station.

However, recently the company found out that their sale had gone down after which it carried out a detailed inquiry and found that two of the accused - Bhadkoliya and Kansodiya had set up a new company and were selling products to Omicron Sensing’s customers.

The two Pradeep and Tushar while working with Omicron Sensing gave its crucial data to Bhadkoliya and Kansodiya despite several warnings. The company has alleged that this way the accused have caused losses of ₹1.5 crore to it.

“We have registered an offence under section 120B (conspiracy), 379 (theft), 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) against the four and are investigating the matter,” Vinayak Mer, senior police inspector of Parksite police station said.