Isn't it the same with bhangra dancer?
Man
"cleared" of sabotage
A COMPUTER programmer accused of sabotaging his former company's computer systems received the best birthday present on Wednesday - two days short of his 37th birthday. He was acquitted of the criminal charges, while a civil lawsuit was settled out of court.
Two years after the start of his run-ins with the law, Mr Thangavelu Boopathiraja was acquitted of two charges of making illegal modifications to a computer system, an offence under the Computer Misuse Act.
The prosecution, said District Judge Thian Yee Sze, had 'not satisfied the burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt'. Mr Boopathiraja could have been jailed up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
The case began two years ago when Mr Boopathiraja's former employer, SMC Marine Services, discovered that someone had installed a password on a computer system on two of its tugboats. This resulted in the company being unable to access the system, which was used to keeps tabs on the movement of the boats and prevent fuel pilferage.
SMC suspected that Mr Boopathiraja, the key person behind the development of the monitoring system, was the culprit, as he had recently quit and started a new company selling a similar tracking system.
SMC subsequently hired lawyers to act against Mr Boopathiraja, and also sued him for damages. Mr Boopathiraja's lawyers, from Rodyk and Davidson, argued that the password had not been set by him.
In its written closing arguments, Rodyk said SMC had simply 'trumped up charges' because it wanted to get back at Mr Boopathiraja for quitting and then setting up a competing business.
In any event, said Rodyk, SMC possessed only circumstantial evidence to back up its claims, and as such did not have 'a case that meets the standard of proof in criminal proceedings, beyond a reasonable doubt'.
It cited examples like how SMC's computer forensics expert had performed analysis on files pulled from a USB-storage device that was not put into evidence. This, Rodyk said, meant that the evidence submitted could have been tampered with and was thus unreliable.
Mr Boopathiraja, a former Indian national who is now a Singaporean, told The Straits Times after the verdict that he was 'innocent to begin with.' 'I'm happy to move on,' he added.
He said it is never a good idea to piss off a Pinoy who handles your IT system. Before he leaves the company he will screw up the system in delay sequence so bad you'll end up crying.
Pinoys are damn fucking good in this respect.
Does that hold water?