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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court recently quashed an FIR filed against former Managing Director of Go First Airlines, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer.

A division bench of the high court, comprising Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande, passed the order after Prock-Schauer had been booked on charges of data theft.

Prock-Schauer was charged under Section 408 (criminal breach of trust involving property) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 43(b) and 66 of the Information Technology Act. The FIR, filed in 2018 by the NM Joshi Marg Police Station, was based on a complaint by Go Airlines India Pvt. Ltd.

As CEO of Go Airlines in 2015 and later promoted to MD in 2018, Prock-Schauer was required, under company policy, to return all devices and confidential information upon his departure.

Allegedly, he transferred confidential details from his official email to his personal email and shared it with a third party. Additionally, he was accused of formatting his iPad, which reportedly resulted in financial loss to the company.

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer argued before that the documents he sent to his personal email account pertained to sale agreements with Airbus, which he used for preparing briefings and presentations.

Furthermore, he argued that he shared his resignation documents with a third party, his attorney in Austria, to seek legal advice.

The division bench noted that Go Airlines had already filed a commercial suit against the former MD to restrain him from disclosing, publishing, or otherwise misusing confidential information, trade secrets, and/or company know-how.

The high court recorded that it repeatedly tried to ascertain from the Investigating Officer whether there were any documents downloaded and subsequently shared by the former MD in his capacity as CEO, with the intent to gain any advantage from the company. However, the bench was not provided with any information to that effect, as no such information had been collected.

Therefore, the bench proceeded to quash the FIR while noting that, “..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 subject FIR, as it has failed to make out an offence against the petitioners u/s 43(b) and 66 of Information Technology Act, 2000” the order reads.

Case title: Wolfgang Prock-Schauer vs  State of Maharashtra