New Delhi, June 27: In an unprecedented development, CBI today recorded the statement of a key American witness through video conferencing in a case where an Indian engineer has been accused of trying to sell software of an US-based company. The witness, Tom Vorgitch, a US national, was examined by the Metropolitan Magistrate and his statement recorded through video conferencing for which arrangements were made by National Informatics Centre, a CBI spokesman said here.
As per Supreme Court guidelines, Indian consul at San Francisco Vinod Sharma was present with the witness to ensure that there was no other person in the room while evidence was being recorded. Sharma also ensured that the witness was not coached, tutored and prompted, the spokesman said adding that the entire proceedings took three hours. The case came to light in August last year when an IIT-passed computer engineer, Shekhar Verma, was arrested by CBI for allegedly stealing the debug code of a software worth 60 million US dollars and trying to sell it to other companies for a fortune.
The case was registered against Verma by Manu Parpia, managing director of Mumbai-based Geometric Software Solutions Company (GSSC), for whom the engineer had worked. The Mumbai-based company had received a software for debugging from a us-based company "solid works". The American firm had an exclusive right over the software.
Bureau Report