Chennai: The legal counsel of Polaris Software Lab from India has arrived in Jakarta to co-ordinate the legal moves with Lucas partners, an international law firm whom the company has hired to secure the early release of the company chief executive officer (CEO) Arun Jain and senior vice-president Rajiv Malhotra, presently under detention there.

"The latest information from Jakarta is that both of them are in good health," the company vice-president Raghuraman Balakrishnan said in a press release on December 18.

Polaris also praised the efforts being taken by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, the Information Technology (IT) Minister Pramod Mahajan, CII and NASSCOM for securing the release of the two.

Quoting the versions of the two other company executives, who were also detained along with Jain and Malhotra but were allowed to return to India after 24 hours in custody of the Indonesian police, the release said all of them were detained on December 13 during a scheduled meeting with Jakarta based Artha Graha bank chairman, Anton Hudyana.

The bank chairman wanted across-the-table termination of the contract Polaris had entered with it or face police action, the release said, quoting them.

"Even as the Polaris team tried to speak with the bank's team to seek ways and means to resolve the conflict and avoid termination of the contract, the bank resorted to police intervention," the release said.

Meanwhile Polaris in a statement issued late evening on December 18 said the detention of its officials was "unlawful", as the contract was drawn up under laws of Singapore and not Indonesia.

Stating that the arbitration facility to settle contractual disputes like the current one could be availed only under Singapore law it said, "This makes the present incarceration of Arun and Rajiv even more reprehensible and needs to be condoned in the strongest possible terms."

In Chennai, Polaris vice-president Raghuraman Balakrishnan said, "We are hopeful of some positive development at the earliest."

The issue was taken up with the Indonesian political leadership by Indian Charge d' Affaires in Jakarta Amar Sinha on December 17 who told them that since Polaris was willing to refund 6,60,000 dollars to Bank Artha Graha besides paying the damages, there was no need to detain them.

Police said the two were detained after the Indonesian bank filed a complaint over what they called business dispute of about 1.3 million dollars.

The Indonesian bank's legal counsel Victor B Laiskodat was quoted as saying that Polaris did not fulfil its obligations under the agreement.

PTI