Bahree says friend gave him CD, his firm says we will check

Masih said it is likely that Bahree was not aware of the importance of the information that the CD contained. ‘‘He has written that he was supposed to get 3 pounds per information,’’ Masih said.

The one-and-a-half-page handwritten explanation was received at Infinity e-Search’s office in Gurgaon this evening, in response to a company demand. It was hand-delivered by an acquaintance of Bahree.

Masih said they would verify the contents of the explanation and also give Gurgaon Police a copy. The company has, meanwhile, handed over Bahree’s resume, his photograph and his I-card, among other things, to Gurgaon Police.

‘‘Karan Bahree was recruited as a junior content writer by our company on April 25 this year. We had found his resume on a job site and had called him for a written test and an interview,’’ said Rahul Dutt, Managing Director of Infinity e-Search. ‘‘Since he showed good skills with the English language, we recruited him on a four-month probation on a salary of Rs 10,000,’’ he added.

‘‘His job involved rewriting content and putting more keywords to give a fresher look to websites so that they got frequently picked up by search engines,’’ said Dutt, adding that his company’s business was web-making and web-development and that it never dealt with classified or confidential information. ‘‘We are not a call centre,’’ Dutt said.

Bahree’s colleagues at the company described him as a ‘‘soft guy who was trying to learn the basics of search engine marketing. He appeared to be a cool guy, very proficient with words, a team man who was always very enthusiastic about his work,’’ said a co-worker, requesting anonymity.

Infinity also tried to distance itself from Bahree’s action. ‘‘We cannot be held responsible for any act of an employee done in an individual capacity,’’ said Masih.

Gurgaon Deputy Superintendent of Police Kulvinder Singh visited the premises of Infinity e-Search this afternoon. ‘‘We haven’t taken any action since there is no complaint as of now. However, we wanted to update ourselves on the developments in the case and that is why we visited the company’s office,’’ the DSP said.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was in Gurgaon today to attend an IT meet organized by NASSCOM, said he had already asked the state IT department to look into the matter. ‘‘The matter is being investigated and everything will be done to ensure things like these don’t sully Gurgaon’s image as an IT and BPO destination,’’ he said.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said Nasscom was already in touch with various enforcement agencies within the country and was willing to extend all cooperation in the investigations. When asked about the hierarchical level at which sensitive or classified information is available at call centres, Karnik said, ‘‘Some information is available at lower levels also but generally there are sufficient safeguards to prevent any misuse of such information.’’

On Thursday, when the story about the sting operation by Sun broke, Bahree was in his office in Gurgaon. ‘‘He was there in the office till 5.30 p.m. As the news broke, he told us he was innocent and had not done anything like this,’’ Masih said.