Flight purser complains against director who wants action against him on the basis of his chat records.
An Air India (AI) employee has lodged a complaint with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) against one of its directors for hacking into his private e-mail account and later asking him to explain about his chat discussions. Under the law, hacking into anybody’s email id is a punishable offence.
Till June 5, 2009, SK Jadhav (name changed) a senior check flight purser with AI was unaware that the chats he was having with his other colleagues and friends on a private forum were monitored.
“One day I got a letter from the director, in-flight service department, Manjira Khurana asking me why action should not be initiated against me by the company. She produced certain documents/transcripts which were allegedly obtained through chats/blogs,” says Jadhav. He found it weird as it was a discussion on private forum of cabin crew members and nobody can access it without invitation.
“Any chat/conversation/blog/post outside the office premises in private/closed forum cannot be construed as a violation of company rules by any stretch of the imagination,” says Jadhav. He approached the CVC and filed a complaint against Khurana of hacking under section 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act and using office machinery to settle personal scores.
“It is amply clear that this is a private/closed forum and is not accessible to the general public at large and therefore does not fall in the public domain and is outside the purview of the rules of the company,” says Jadhav in the letter whose copy is available with DNA. He has also threatened to file a case under cyber crime law if the matter is not properly investigated.
According to Satish Borulkar, former public prosecutor, Bombay high court, this is a clear case of breach of privacy. “No employer, colleague or anyone can hack into anybody's account. It is also a case of breach of IT Act,” says Borulkar.
Even Rakesh Maria, Joint commissioner of police (crime), Mumbai confirms with the same view. “Hacking is a criminal offence. Nobody can do this to anyone. I will ask our cyber crime officials to look into the matter. Let the person come forward and lodge a complaint with us and we would look into the matter,” said Maria.
K Swaminathan, deputy general manager, corporate communication claimed that the airline’s spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava was in Delhi and will be able to comment only after he comes back to Mumbai.
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