The Hindu Business Line : IT pro found murdered on Mumbai-Goa highway

The murder of Vikram Poddar, a project manager at Infosys' Hinjewadi development centre, who took a lift from strangers en route to his Mumbai home last week has the city's software community and his colleagues in a state of shock.

Poddar's body was found dumped in a ditch in Pen on the Mumbai-Goa highway by the gang who later used his credit cards to splurge on mobile phones, clothes and chocolates. The police are on the trail of three Mumbai-based suspects, including a scrap merchant and a bar girl who were in the Indica in which Poddar accepted a lift. This is the second time this month that an Infoscion has been targeted in this manner — on March 9, another employee of the company was similarly offered a lift, drugged by his abductors and dumped on the Mumbai-Pune highway after he was robbed of his belongings. Fortunately, the gang did not kill him.

A team of policemen from the Hinjewadi police station are now in Mumbai investing the case but shell-shocked Infoscions are on a mission to educate their colleagues who often commute between the two cities. The company, which has an estimated 7,000 employees at its Hinjewadi development centre, is now urging employees to use the private buses that are regularly hired by employees or use the state transport buses.

The company has also alerted the Software Exporters Association of Pune, a large number of whose members have operations at Hinjewadi, of the incident, in order to avoid such tragedy. Poddar was travelling to Mumbai to visit his family, including a two-year-old daughter, when the incident occurred.

"We are distressed about the unfortunate incident and offer our condolences to the family. We are informed that similar incidents have occurred before around the same area. It is very important that the police enhance security and take tangible steps to prevent such incidents in the future. It is the collective responsibility of the government, police, industry and civil society to ensure safety of all individuals and we all need to undertake measures to address this problem.

"At Infosys, the safety and security of all Infoscions is paramount to us. We are sensitising our employees across all locations on personal safety and the need for greater care, especially while using private transport. We encourage our employees to car pool with fellow Infoscions, if need be. We also organise regular workshops on personal defense, emergency handling, safety tips and so on," said a statement from Mr Mohands Pai, Chief Financial Officer and Director, Infosys.

The Sub-Inspector, Mr Masaji Kale, Hinjewadi police station, who is now in Mumbai with a crime branch team to follow up various leads in the case told Business Line the three accused have fled the city after their names appeared in a section of the press as prime suspects.

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