Polaris to sue Bank Artha Graha over executives' detention
Polaris to sue Bank Artha Graha over executives' detention
Agence France-Presse, Madras, India
An executive of a top Indian software firm who was held by Jakarta police with a colleague for nearly two weeks said Wednesday he planned legal action against the Indonesian bank whose complaint had led to their arrest.
Arun Jain, chairman of leading Indian software firm Polaris Software India Ltd., and the company's senior vice president Rajiv Malhotra were arrested in Indonesia on Dec. 13 and returned home Tuesday night after a public outcry in India.
Addressing reporters in the southern city of Madras, Jain said Polaris would pursue charges against the Jakarta-based Bank Artha Graha, which had alleged criminal deception over a US$1.3 million software development project, leading to the arrests.
"We had gone there with the intention to resolve the commercial dispute between Polaris and Bank Artha Graha. But unfortunately the turn of events led to an unwilling detention for us. Also the bank sought compensation across the table," Jain said.
"The Polaris board will take into consideration all these events and take appropriate legal action including a defamation suit against the bank for our harrowing experience these last 12 days," he said.
Describing his experience as "an adventurous safari", Jain said officials would not allow him or Malhotra, detained on the 28th floor of the bank office, to contact anyone, even the Indian embassy in Jakarta.
He said he finally managed to slip into the washroom and call up his Delhi office.
The two men were released last Friday after India's Foreign Minister Yaswant Sinha spoke over the phone with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda.
The executive said his detention could have been pre-meditated move to extract money from Polaris.
"I have learnt that such practices are prevalent in the Indonesian market," he said separately in an interview with Star News television.
"But people don't take a stand. I was fortunate in being able to refuse to bend backwards -- after all, I am a trustee of a public limited company," Jain said.
Indonesia's shaky and corruption-prone judicial system is seen as a major deterrent to foreign investment.