Our Bureau

New Delhi , June 24

THE plot around the call centre scam thickened on Friday with Mr Karan Bahree, who allegedly sold account details of 1,000 UK bank customers to an undercover journalist, claiming that he had acted at the behest of another person to merely deliver a "CD presentation" without knowing that he was passing on classified information.

Meanwhile, Mr Bahree's current employer, Infinity e-Search, said that the company was neither a BPO nor a call centre, and did not handle any classified financial information. "We are a web marketing company not a call centre or a BPO. We do not have any bank in UK as our customer. We do not have any clients in the banking sector," Mr Rahul Dutt, Managing Director, Infinity e-Search, said.

He said that Mr Bahree had been on probation in the company since April and worked as a content writer.

Pointing out that the company was not responsible for the alleged action of Mr Bahree, he said, "It is a coincidence that Mr Bahree is working with us. We do not handle any classified information of any client so there is not question of him getting this information through the company. If he has done it, we are not responsible as he has done it in his individual capacity and beyond his job profile."

Later in the day, Mr Deepak Masih, lawyer for Infinity, shared the contents of an explanation submitted by Mr Bahree. "In his explanation, Mr Bahree has said that he knew someone called Sameer who approached him to deliver a presentation to someone by the name of Oliver. It was in a CD and he did not know about the data. He did not know it was classified information, but he has admitted to taking the money as a service charge. We will give a copy of his explanation to the concerned DSP".

Infinity had sought an explanation from Mr Bahree by 05:30 p.m. today, he said adding that the explanation, which runs into one-and-half pages, was delivered to the company's office.

On how much money had changed hands in the transaction, Mr Masih declined to reveal the exact amount "till we talk to the investigating agencies". He, however, added that Mr Bahree had got "£3 per information". Mr Masih declined to comment further on the issue.

Mr Masih said the decision to fire Mr Bahree could not be taken in haste, as there was no formal complaint yet.

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