Terror and IT workers

Illustration: P K Job

Due to improper background checks done by the IT companies, BPOs, MNCs and other small software firms, terrorists have been working in multi-international companies for months and years without anyone noticing them.

And companies claim they get clearance from the police on every employee they hire.
Police have arrested Danish Riyaz, a terror suspect from Ranchi, for the July 13 Mumbai blasts. He had been living and working in Banjara Hills, in an IT firm, for over three years.
Mansoor Peerbhoy, involved in another Mumbai blast case, was working in Pune as a senior software engineer in a reputed firm. Ironically, he was trained in software courses at Hyderabad. The police say there may be many more such individuals in these IT companies.
However, IT companies, BPOs, MNCs and other small software firms, are refuting this and say that they do all the police checks required and that they cannot be held responsible for what the employee does after work hours.

Infotech chairmen B.V.R. Mohan Reddy says, “We do a background check when we hire anyone. There are special organisations that do the checking. Only when they are cleared by the police do we move forward. We also have a National Skill Agency, where companies are asked to register their personnel information. We are doing what we can with the limited database and infrastructure.”

Others blame smaller companies, who may not be so diligent in doing background checks.
L. Suresh, President of ITsAP, says, “All medium and larger IT companies and BPO’s do the checks as required. However, if the police clear an employee and then after joining, they are involved in something, then we can’t do anything. We do monitor everything that happens inside the office, but after they leave, it’s the police department’s responsibility.”
He adds, “Smaller companies might be at fault as they may not be able to afford background checks. Maybe, government should help them. Also, employees keep changing at these places.”
D. Tirumala Rao, Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad, says, “Private companies should hire private investigators to do the required background check. They can approach us if they want any help. We do all background checks for government employees and only when we hear of anyone suspicious at an IT firm, we take action. Each company should keep a watch on their employees and keep us posted if they come across anyone who might have been involved in criminal actives or if they have any doubts that something is planned.”