[July 20, 2011] Travelocity files civil suit against Cleartrip in HC Tweet Jul 20, 2011 (Mint - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Desiya Online Travel Distribution Pvt. Ltd and D.V. Travels Guru Pvt. Ltd have filed a civil suit against Cleartrip Travel Services Pvt. Ltd, its senior executives and directors, in the Bombay high court for data theft. This follows the filing of a criminal chargesheet by the Gurgaon police in the same case, said US-based online travel website Travelocity.com Lp, which owns Desiya and Travelguru, in a media statement released on Tuesday. The Indian unit of Travelocity has claimed damages of $37.5 million for the losses. In a complaint filed by Himanshu Singh, managing director (India) at Travelocity, on 11 December 2009, with Gurgaon police, the company alleged that one of its former employees, Amit Taneja, and Cleartrip chief executive officer Stuart Crighton along with other executives of the firm entered into a criminal conspiracy to steal proprietary data, its computer database and other information, resulting in wrongful loss. Travelocity acquired TravelGuru and its subsidiary Desiya in 2006. Taneja was earlier managing director of Desiya and is now a director, hotels and distribution at Cleartrip. "The suit has been filed against Cleartrip for illegally procuring various confidential information, trade secrets, hotel business database and know-how of Travelocity's business processes and using the same to build its own database and business in India," Travelocity said in a note.. In an email, a spokesperson for Cleartrip said: "Since December 2009, senior executives of Cleartrip have been facing continuous harassment with what Cleartrip believes to be a misconceived and baseless criminal complaint filed by a large American travel portal, Travelocity." The Cleartrip statement said this civil suit is vindictive and that the figures quoted are completely groundless and denied. "Cleartrip has cooperated fully with the investigating authorities and will continue to do so. It's business-as-usual at Cleartip.com which has always committed itself to the highest standards of transparency and integrity with respect to our customers and in everything we do. As the matter is sub judice, we are not able to comment further," the spokesperson added. The petition will come up for hearing on 21 July. To see more of Mint, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.livemint.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Mint, New Delhi Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]