Flashback:
Lakshman Kailash, employed as software engineer by HCL and a resident of Kodihalli gets arrested in Bangalore on August 31, 2007 under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and spends 50 days at Yerawada Jail in Pune. He is charged with defaming Chatrapathi Shivaji, one of the founders of the Maratha Empire, by allegedly uploading an insulting picture of the latter on Orkut, a social networking site (SNS).
Based on the complaint filed by a Pune resident, Dhiraj Ramchandra Ghate, the Pune Police arrests Kailash apparently based on his IP address through Airtel, his Internet service provider. However, they later learn that one Kiran Reddy, a resident of Bangalore, was the actual culprit. After the intervention of the State Human Rights Commission of Maharashtra, the police set Kailash free.
Airtel gets asked to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh by the Maharashtra Human Rights Commission. However, they defy the order and default on the payment.
Fast Forward to year 2009, Airtel’s top executives and senior government officials involved in the case have now been summoned by a magistrate court in Bangalore. Mr. Lakshman Kailash techie has dragged telecom giant Bharti Airtel to court demanding that he be paid Rs. 20 Crores in damages because the company had given wrong information to the police and landed him in jail. The VIth additional chief metropolitan magistrate in Bangalore, Churi Khan, has issued summons to six of Bharti Airtel’s top officials including Bharti Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli, group chairman and Bharti Enterprises CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti Enterprises vice-chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Bharti Enterprises managing director Raja Bharti Mittal, Bharti Airtel Ltd (South) CEO and Bharti Infotel CEO. Mital and others have been told to appear before the court on Jan 1, 2010.
“2 lakhs is a small amount for them and I really don’t understand why they are not paying up. They have to follow court orders. They are citizens of India, whether they think they are guilty or not is secondary,” says Lakshman Kailash. He further adds, “I have spent 50 horrible days in jail. You can’t measure the trauma which I went through, my family went through. You can’t scale those horrible moments in money. I feel it’s a less amount with respect to the trauma I went through because I have to carry it throughout my life.“
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