Infosys told to reinstate ex-employee

A labour authority in Jaipur has asked software major Infosys to reinstate a former employee whose service with the company was terminated following his detention by the police in connection with the serial blasts in Jaipur in May 2008.

The labour authority, under the Rajasthan Shops and Commercial Establishments Act (RSCEA), 1959, has asked the company to reinstate Rashid Hussain with retrospective effect and also provide the salary and perks of the period of his termination as their action was mala fide. 

While addressing the media on Wednesday along with the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) activists who extended legal assistance to fight the case, Rashid said his fight was to erase the stigma and nothing more.

He said he was attached with many political and social organisations during his student days and SIMI was one of them. He stressed that his association was before the organisation was banned and the police action was based on that suspicion.

“I was detained for nine days and the police let me off without framing any charges but the company terminated my service on the frivolous ground of finding some ‘discrepancies’ in my bio data on July 17,” he said. Rashid, who is from Bihar, was working with the company in Bangalore before being transferred to Jaipur as a senior network engineer when the company set up its office there and had a three-year stint with the software major. 

Redeem lost prestige

He said the company’s action hurt him the most. “It made the people believe that I indeed did something seriously wrong and people started ostracising me. I had come to a dead end and my career was at the crossroads as nobody gave me a job”.

PUCL state general secretary Kavita Srivastava said “Rashid Hussain was planning to leave Jaipur due to the stigma. However, we advised him to fight to clear his name and pledged to help him find a job”.

Presently, Rashid is working with a private engineering college as the head of the department of electronics and communication. He said, “I am very happy as a teacher as it is more satisfying. But I want to put the record straight”.

After getting a copy of the order dated March 31 Rashid contacted Infosys officials but they were not forthcoming. Hussain’s lawyer Prem Kishen Sharma said, “if the company do not comply with the order I will file a contempt case against the company”.