The owner of a software company received the shock of his life when he discovered that he had been duped by his most trusted employee.

Nilesh Dattatray Kedar, manager of Senate Technologies Pvt Ltd., along with a techie allegedly conned Bavdhan based IT company to the tune of Rs 28.91 crores by stealing source code of a software programme of the company.

And following the complaint filed by Sadeep Sarode, owner of company, Hinjewadi police has booked the duo for what they say was as sharply planned corporate crime.

According to the complaint, Kedar, a resident of Badlapur in Thane district, was working as a project manager with Senate Technologies Pvt Ltd. and had committed the crime between July 2008 and January 1, 2009.

Sarode, in his complaint, has said that Kedar won the confidence of company management while executing a software programme called 'Cost of Difference' and even convinced the company to set up an office in UK to tap the European market.

Also, he allegedly convinced the company to appoint an intermediate agency to contact prospective foreign clients and suggested the name of 24X7 RPF Limited.

Kedar then contacted the company officials from UK saying that a bank has approached the company to develop a software programme, which they can use to record their financial reports. "Accordingly, the company hired several software engineers to prepare the software as per the banks' requirement," said Sarode.
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He added that when the software was ready, Kedar allegedly told the officials of the company that the bank has even issued a demand draft (DD). However, Sarode alleged that Kedar never showed the DD to the company.

Also, he asked the company officials in Pune to dispatch the software and its source code to which the company officials obliged.

"But later, Kedar told the company officials that the customer bank has rejected the project and have refused to return the software programme," said Sarode.

And to the utter disbelief of Senate Technologies officials, Kedar himself was the owner of 24X7 RPF Limited and had allegedly sold the software project as a product of 24X7 RPF Limited.

Incidentally, a few months ago, Brainvisa, a company involved in e-learning solutions, reported a similar case to the city police.