Mumbai: In a relief to a former employee of Tata Motors, the Bombay High Court granted him relief, earlier this month. The employee was accused of sending “slanderous and defamatory” emails to the company senior officials and its group of companies, for more than a year.
A single-judge bench of Justice Prakash Naik granted bail to Vikas Narayan by paying a bond of Rs 25,000. He was appointed as the Assistant Vice President of the TMIBASL, however, his services were terminated in August 2016. Narayan, was an ex-employee of the Tata Motors Insurance Broking & Advisory Services (TMIBASL), a subsidiary company of Tata Motors. He was arrested by the special investigation team, constituted by the Mumbai Police cyber cell, pursuant to the orders of the Bombay HC, to probe into the case.
The special team had even sought assistance from Google India to probe the case. Apart from Narayan, the police had also picked up Pijushkanti Roy from Kolkata, who allegedly connived with the former and sent numerous emails through ‘fictitious email addresses.’
According to the suit filed before the HC by the TMIBASL, its senior officials and also the office bearers of other subsidiaries of the Tata group have been receiving defamatory emails over a year. The firm argued that Narayan ‘knowingly’ circulated the defamatory emails and continued with his act despite the fact that the Mumbai police was investigating the case.’
Having heard the arguments advanced, Justice Naik considered the fact that Narayan was in judicial custody since July this year and that the police has filed its chargesheet. The court also took into account the fact that co-accused Roy was already granted bail by the Mumbai sessions court on the ground that the entire case rested upon ‘documentary evidence.’
“The applicant (Narayan) is in custody for substantial period of time. Thus, there is no need to continue his detention in custody. Also, after taking into consideration all the circumstances, more particularly the fact that the investigation is already completed and the chargesheet is filed, no purpose will be served by detaining the accused,” Justice Naik said.