Gurugram based Tosh innovations has lodged an FIR with Cyber Crime Police against former employee Mayank Vijh for allegedly stealing company’s data and selling it to competitors like UpGrad. The company is accusing UpGrad of knowingly allowing Vijh to conduct the Data and Confidentiality breach, thereby being an accomplice.
Blockchain is known for its security and immutability, but we cannot say the same thing about the content that helps you learn Blockchain. On October 5, 2019, Guguram Cyber Police registered an FIR from Anuj Sharma, director of Tosh innovations for an alleged “misappropriation of company assets and unauthorized copying of our company’s confidential data” against one former employee and Mumbai based online education platform UpGrad.
According to the FIR, Tosh Innovations say the Mayank Vijh cheated the company for Rs. 34,82,000/- and an is responsible for an additional business loss of Rs. 2,20,00,000/-.
Tosh Innovations works in training, certifications, consulting and development of High End Technology products such as Blockchain. Tosh Innovation is accusing Vijh of stealing, copying and selling Blockchain course material that is currently live on Blockchain Council, a training and certification platform.
Unauthorised Copying and Selling!
The FIR states Mayank Vijh was promoted to the position of VP-Technology and was not authorised to engage anywhere besides Tosh Innovations and was bound by non-disclosures. In October 2018, Vijh signed an agreement with UpGrad and “travelled to Mumbai to sell company’s confidential data” as per Tosh Innovation’s investigation mentioned in the FIR.
Tosh Innovations say they checked Mayank Vijh’s emails to find out Vijh had setup his own LLP and is currently selling Blockchain courses on Udemy, which are also copied from Tosh Innovations’ data. The course mentioned in the FIR is available on Udemy at press time, sold by Vijh’s We2Block. Coin Crunch could not independently verify if the contents on the Udemy and UpGrad is similar to that of Tosh Innovations, however the company said in an official reply that all the evidence has been handed over to the police.
Four courses of Blockchain-Council created by Tosh Innovations were copied without authorisation, the company said in its response to questions. The courses are all about development on Blockchain technology like Ethereum and Hyperledger.
Tosh innovations discovered the actions of Mayank Vijh on Feb 28, 2019 and Vijh’s employment was terminated the next day. The FIR alleges that Vijh deleted his official mailbox entirely, but Tosh Innovations was able to recover it and discover the actions taken by Vijh.
It appears that Mayank Vijh was using his official email address to communicate with UpGrad. Tosh innovations is accusing UnGrad of deliberately allowing Mayank Vijh to copy and steal the content from Tosh Innovations, thereby becoming an accomplice in such criminal activity.
FIR Registered with Cyber Crime
Tosh Innovations had first approached the Cyber Crime police Gurugram, Haryana in March 2019 with the details of the breach but the FIR was officially registered only on October 5, 2019. The police conducted “thorough preliminary investigation” of the complaint to verify the theft before registering the FIR, Tosh Innovations told Coin Crunch India.
Toshendra Sharma, the CEO and founder of Tosh Innovations told Coin Crunch,
“As a Founder & CEO of the Tosh Innovations, I am very much concerned about the theft in our company. We have suffered a lot of damages both mentally and financially. We believe in the legal system and due course of action by the Gurugram Cyber Police. We are supporting law enforcement agencies in their investigation with the required data and information.”
Toshendra Sharma, CEO – Tosh Innovations
The Police have currently registered the offences in the FIR under Section 66 and 66(b) of Information Technology Act. Tosh Innovations said they will “follow all the legal courses available at our disposal for justice”, hinting at a possible Civil suite.
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