Eight months after charges of data theft were slapped against him by a rival company, Stuart Crighton, CEO, Cleartrip, was arrested yesterday after being questioned by the Gurgaon police and later let out on bail by a local court. Also arrested in the high-profile case was Amit Taneja, former CEO, Desiya Online Travel Distribution, who was also later released on bail.
The charges against them, were levelled by Travelocity India, a major online travel company. Travelocity accused Cleartrip CEO Crighton, a British national, of conniving with senior executives of Desiya to pilfer data, which the company alleged had led to huge business losses.
“A case in this regard was lodged by Travelocity in the Civil Lines police station in December last year. The CEO joined the investigations today after appearing in the court. The questioning today, however, was not decisive,” said Alok Mittal, Joint Commissioner of Police, Gurgaon. He refused to divulge details of the questioning.
On its part, Cleartrip termed the charges as baseless. “We, at Cleartrip, believe that the FIR filed by Travelocity is misconceived and baseless,” Hrush Bhatt, co-founder, Cleartrip.com, has said. “We believe in India's judicial system and are extending our every cooperation to all the relevant agencies involved in this investigation.”
P K X Thomas, chief operating officer, Cleartrip.com, has alleged that the so-called data theft case was filed against the Cleartrip officials “out of professional rivalry”. According to a report published in Hindustan Times, Amit Taneja was sacked as managing director of Desia Online Distribution in September 2009.
“But Travelocity soon realized its mistake as it came to know that Taneja was going to join Cleartrip. They started making all out efforts not to let him join our company. It was in this endeavour that they started harassing us by way of filing police complaint and finally an FIR was registered,” Cleartrip COO Thomas has said. Amit Taneja joined Cleartrip as director, hotels and distribution in April 2010.