Engineer fired for accessing computers in state secretariat in Mumbai illegally

An Information Technology (IT) engineer working on contract at the state secretariat, was sacked as he was found illegally accessing the computers in the state revenue department before office hours.

An Information Technology (IT) engineer working on contract at the Mantralaya, the state secretariat, was sacked as he was found illegally accessing the computers in the state revenue department before office hours on Tuesday. No case was registered as the IT department did not find any data or hardware theft in its preliminary probe.

No case was registered as the IT department did not find any data or hardware theft in its preliminary probe. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Amol Yedge, director, IT, said, “We also checked the engineer’s pen drive but didn’t find anything objectionable apart from the software he is supposed to use. Since he illegally accessed the computers, we decided to terminate his contract.”

Principal secretary of IT, SVS Srinivas, also confirmed the incident. Manukumar Srivastava, additional chief secretary (revenue), was unavailable for comment. Mrutunjay Hiremath, senior inspector, Marine Drive police, said, “No case has been registered as we didn’t receive any complaint of theft from the Mantralay,” Hiremath said.

On Tuesday morning, the IT personnel was accessing the computers of the state revenue department before office hours. “A peon asked him if he had got a complaint from any officer to which the engineer said no and said he is cleaning the machines,” said a revenue officer.

The engineer then fled the scene when the peon went to see if any officers were present in the department. Later, the peon narrated the incident to senior officers. “The engineer was then taken to the Marine Drive police station,” said another officer.

However, no case was registered against the IT engineer. (With inputs from Faisal Tandel)