Bengaluru: Private firm flags massive data theft; FIR filed

Bengaluru: A private company has alleged data theft by one of its employees, claiming the stolen source code and software were worth 8,000,000 Euros (Rs 87.44 crore), police officials said on Tuesday.

Whitefield Cybercrime Police registered an FIR on January 23 after receiving a complaint from Zul Kafeel, 49, of Amadeus Software Labs India (P) Ltd, Marathahalli.

The FIR states that the suspect, Ashutosh Nigam, was employed as senior manager-research scientist since February 1, 2020. His employment followed an Asset Purchase Agreement (Software Purchase) with Innovative Scheduling LLC (Optym).

Kafeel stated that during his employment, Nigam unauthorisedly accessed and exfiltrated source code and software belonging to the company on October 11, 2025 by transferring it and other confidential data from his personal email account without consent or approvals from the company.

When confronted with internal findings and records, Nigam allegedly admitted to exfiltrating the source code, which was video recorded by the company.

His employment was terminated on December 3.

The FIR stated the software, including the source code, is valued at 8,000,000 Euros. The exfiltration caused severe business impact and loss to the company and compromised its intellectual property rights.

"These acts by Ashutosh Nigam amount to data theft, unauthorised access, misuse and fraudulent exploitation of the company’s computer systems, records, intellectual property and confidential data. We request action against Ashutosh Nigam as per law,” the complainant stated.

Police have issued notices to the suspect to appear for questioning and asked the complainant to provide supporting documents. The investigation is underway.