Observing that no offence was made out, the Bombay High Court has quashed a case of alleged data theft lodged against former managing director of the now grounded domestic airline Go First, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer.
The court noted that the complaint has failed to make out an offence against Prock-Schauer and that continuation of proceedings against him would be a mere procedural rigmarole. “Continuation of the proceedings against the petitioner would be nothing short of mere procedural rigmarole and therefore we are inclined to quash and set aside the FIR,” a bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said on October 23.
The HC was hearing a petition by Prock-Schauer seeking quashing of the FIR against him in February 2018 by the NM Joshi Marg police following a complaint by Go Airlines India Ltd. Apart from criminal breach of trust with property under the Indian Penal Code, Prock-Schauer was booked under the provisions of the Information Technology Act pertaining to data theft.
Prock-Schauer became CEO of then GoAir (later rebranded as Go First in 2021) in 2015. He was then promoted as MD of the company until he resigned in August 2017. The company policy mandated him to return all devices used by him as well as all other confidential information.
The company alleged that Prock-Schauer sent confidential information from his official email ID to his personal email and also to a third party. It is also alleged that he had formatted data on his I-Pad. During his tenure as CEO, he was taking decisions on his own without consulting the Board of Directors and sharing information related to the company with third parties.
It further alleged that from March 2016 to December 2017, Prock-Schauer downloaded confidential information and shared it to his personal email and also to a third party. Since this information was confidential in nature, it has resulted in financial loss to the company.
However, Prock-Schauer contended that the emails that he had shared to his personal ID pertained to sale, agreements and negotiation with Airbus for the preparation of briefings and presentations.
His advocate Niranjan Mundargi said that certain other emails sent to the alleged third party were mails related to his resignation and were sent to his attorney in Austria seeking legal advice.
The bench said that it tried to ascertain from police whether any other documents were downloaded and shared by the petitioner in his capacity as a CEO fraudulently and dishonestly, but has not been provided with any information. The judges added that they have not found any material relied upon by the police to show the petitioner had fraudulently or dishonestly obtained any information. Further, the company has already filed a commercial suit against Prock-Schauer in 2018 seeking to restrain him from disclosing confidential information and trade secrets of the company and hence has secured its interests.
