The Hindu : Polaris chief returns

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 25, 2002

Front Page

Front Page

Polaris chief returns

By Our Staff Reporter

HOME AT LAST: Polaris executive, Arun Jain, coming out of the Chennai airport on Tuesday night. — Photo:S.R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI DEC. 24. Arun Jain, Chairman and Managing Director and CEO, Polaris Software, and the senior vice-president, Rajiv Malhotra, returned to India after 12 days of harrowing experience in Jakarta.

The Indonesian authorities released Mr. Jain and Mr. Malhotra on Friday morning but police withheld their passports. Their passports were returned on Tuesday morning and they landed here later in the night.

The officials of Polaris Software said the commercial dispute with Indonesia's Artha Graha Bank would be settled through proper arbitration and legal proceedings.

On arrival, Mr. Jain addressed mediapersons and thanked the Government of India for its diplomatic efforts to secure their release.

Diplomatic tussle

P. S. Suryanarayana reported from Singapore:

The ordeal of the two top executives came to an end earlier in the day as the Indonesian police returned their impounded passports. Soon after receiving the passports, the two left Jakarta for home after enduring a drama that transformed their commercial dispute with the Artha Graha Bank into a tense personal ordeal and a virtual diplomatic tussle of nerves between New Delhi and Jakarta. In the end, even as the Indonesian authorities released the passports unconditionally, the real game plan of police and the complainants in Jakarta remained far from clear.

Throughout the crisis, which involved the prestige of India's software industry and also Jakarta's credentials for upholding the rules of international commercial transactions, the Indonesian authorities revealed little about their compulsions or calculations.

Amar Sinha, India's Charge d'Affaires in Jakarta, said the understanding behind today's positive development was that the Indian firm would remain ready to cooperate with the Indonesian authorities as regards any further investigations by them.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

Stories in this Section

PM discounts all talk of Hindu rashtra

Congress going soft on terrorism, says BJP

Delhi gets Metro Railway

Polaris chief returns

Musharraf raises Gujarat again

Naga talks put off

Policeman's kin killed

New post for Navy chief

Sunita to get back medals

UAE deported Al-Qaeda man

Breakthrough

Violence in Vadodara