India has told Indonesia that it stands guarantee for software entrepreneur Arun Jain who has been arrested in a commercial dispute with an Indonesian bank and assured Jakarta that he will cooperate with police investigations. Polaris Software Lab is the sixth largest software company in India in terms of market capitalisation. Polaris stocks down 4.37% Mumbai: Shares of Polaris Software Lab Ltd fell as much as 4.37 per cent on Tuesday on news the firm’s chairman Arun Jain had been detained by Indonesian police in Jakarta. The news led to battering of the stock on the bourses. On the Bombay Stock Exchange, Polaris stock closed down Rs 8.05 or 4.36 per cent at Rs 176.75 on a volume of 45,72,296 shares but off its intra-day low of Rs 172.45. On Monday, the Polaris closed down 2.3 per cent at Rs 184.80. The current decline in the stock prices comes after the stock surged around 36 per cent from Rs 145.80 on November 5, 2002 to Rs 198.20. Dealers said the fall in the stock price of Polaris is basically on the back of the negative news and a sustained fall is not expected in the coming days. ENS Even as IT minister Pramod Mahajan said that New Delhi intends to write to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri—who is currently touring Aceh—on the matter, New Delhi has already sent aide memoires to Indonesian Foreign Minister and Interior Minister as well as the Jakarta police chief protesting Jain’s innocence and promising to stand guarantee about his cooperation with the authorities. In New Delhi, the Indonesian Ambassador was called in to convey India’s views on the issue, an external affairs ministry spokesman said. Jain, who is in police custody for the past three days over a commercial dispute with the Bank Artha Graha, which had given Polaris a $1.1 million order for software development. The agreement, signed in the middle of this year, covered central processing, disaster recovery and branch server related work, the company said. The contract was to be completed by July next year. When the bank terminated the contract, Jain and a colleague Rajiv Malhotra flew to Jakarta to resolve the matter. According to Polaris, when Jain arrived at the bank office in Jakarta, they were detained and not allowed to leave the premises. On a complaint of the bank, the Indonesian police detained them. According to Mahajan, ‘‘This kind of illegal activity against Indian businessmen is wrong. Definitely we will support Arun Jain and other Polaris official. To the best of our knowledge, they have not done anything which deserves this kind of treatment.’’ The board of directors of Polaris had met on Monday in Delhi to review the situation and appointed Govind Singhal, executive director, as acting CEO of the company. Polaris executive director Govind Singhal said ‘‘If it is an issue of arbitration, there is a provision legally.Even if there is termination, then we can always discuss that.’’ Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said the apex association had been actively pursuing the matter with authorities and the Indonesian computer industry association. Talking to The Indian Express, Polaris vice-president Raghuraman Balakrishnan said “our entire Delhi office is in touch with the Government of India and also the Indonesian Embassy. The government has extended full support to the company and we are thankful to them for their cooperation”. Raghuraman also added that the contract with the Indonesian bank provides for arbitration in Singapore and the officials of Polaris have been held despite the clause. Meanwhile a PTI report adds that the issue was taken up with the Indonesian political leadership by Indian Charge D’ Affaire in Jakarta Amar Sinha who told them that since Polaris was willing to refund $6,60,000 to Bank Artha Graha besides paying the damages, there was no need to detain them. Sinha told PTI on phone from Jakarta that the Indian Embassy had also given a guarantee that the company would cooperate with the Indonesian authorities. The Indian envoy, who met Jain and senior vice-president Rajiv Malhotra, said a legal firm appointed by Polaris was moving a petition.
