Polaris chief released from Indonesian police detention

Friday, 20 December 2002, 20:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: The chief executive of an Indian software company was released early Friday in Jakarta where he was detained by the Indonesian police following a commercial dispute with a local bank. Arun Jain, chairman of Polaris Software, India's leading banking and financial service software firm, and his senior executive Rajiv Malhotra had been detained by the Indonesian police on December 13 following a dispute between the Chennai-based company and a bank in Jakarta. "Both of them have been released early today and they are currently in the Indian embassy in Jakarta," said a senior official of the National Association of Software and Services Company (Nasscom), India's IT industry umbrella group. The official said Jain and Malhotra are likely to reach Chennai by Friday evening. Other details were not immediately known. All the senior Polaris officials were huddled in a meeting and refused to make any comments. Jain went to Jakarta with a team of senior executives in charge of a software development project for Indonesia's Bank Artha Graha to resolve a commercial dispute. Polaris Software had signed agreements with Bank Artha Graha in June this year for central processing, disaster recovery and branch server related work. The contract was supposed to be executed by July next year. Bank Artha Graha, however, served notice of contract termination on Polaris Software on November 27. "Polaris said the grounds for termination were incorrect and offered to resolve the issue through discussion," said a Polaris statement. "However on their (the Polaris officials) arrival in the office of Bank Artha Graha on December 13, 2002, they were detained against their wishes and were not allowed to leave the premises," it added. Polaris has maintained that there has been no fraud committed by the company. The Indian government has reacted sharply to Jain's detention by the Indonesian police. India has told Indonesia that the continued detention of the software executives in Jakarta and reported use of "strong-arm tactics" against its professionals could impair bilateral ties.
Source: IANS
siliconindia