Kailash Katkar: “The allegations of Softalk are erroneous and baseless”

In an exclusive interview with DQ Channels, Kailash Katkar, founder and CEO of Quick Heal, speaks about Softalk allegations and clears his stands on the ongoing standoff between the two companies

Recently, Delhi-based Softalk Technologies (Quick Heal's CD replicating partner) had issued notices to Quick Heal for company wind up, under section 434A. Have you got this notice and what do you have to say about this?
We are in receipt of a notice from Softalk for recovery of unsubstantiated dues and a threat for winding up u/s 433 (e) of the Company's Act 1956. The same has been referred to our legal counsels and we will not be able to comment on the same.

Quick Heal has been investigating on the charges alleged by Softalk. Where have the investigations reached so far?
Our stand vis-a-vis Softalk is very firm and clear. All the charges alleged by Softalk are false, erroneous and baseless, with a malafide intent to demean and malign the image of Quick Heal. We would not like to comment on these allegations as the matter is subjudice.

Quick Heal has been charged for various tax evasions by Softalk and there have been reports of raids at your offices. How has these recent developments impacted your business?
Firstly to clarify, the allegations of Softalk are erroneous and baseless made with a malafide intent. Secondly, there were no raids at our offices as mentioned. There was an inspection by the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) Revenue Officer on September14, 2012 at Pune and Parwanoo office of Quick Heal (QH). Moreover, if the extent of malpractices by QH is so blatant, don't you think the DGCEI would have ceased the operations of QH with immediate effect? It's been over 120 days since the DGCEI surveyed our offices. We have co-operated with them in providing them all the documentations required by them for a fair investigation in the month of September 2012. As on date we have not received any demand or notices from the departments for depositing taxes.
Lastly, due to our large and loyal channel base and with the huge support of our partners and customers and their trust in what Quick Heal stands for in terms of clean business ethics of high integrity, there hasn't been any impact on either the production or the sale of QH products across the country.

Softalk claims that Quickheal has not paid the total dues of `16 crore for the material and services provided to it adding that a legal notice has been sent already to which Quick Heal is neither responding or paying anything and ignoring various payment reminders. Do you find any truth in the claims. If no, how do you prove this?
Softalk is on a mission to defame and deride the goodwill and credibility that QuickHeal has established over these years. We faced quality issues with Softalk and we received complaints from partners and customers about scratches on CDs, software loading problems and also about wrong packaging-1-user license going into a 3-user license pack, etc. We had informed Softalk about the same who had then assured us that such complaints won't arise in future. However, we took on-board more CD manufacturers including Jupiter and IPSoft who also have units in Himachal Pradesh to mitigate the supply and quality issues faced by us. We assume that Softalk didn't like this change and gradually we moved our entire production to the other two vendors. The claims made by Softalk are erroneous and baseless and are not substantiated with accurate audited data. The same shall be proved with the appropriate court of law. As mentioned earlier we would not like to comment further on these allegations as the matter is subjudice.

Can we see any resolution to this dispute in the coming times?
QH always stood for and believed in clean, fair business and ethics of high integrity. We always have processes and procedures which offer opportunities for arbitration and mediation of dispute resolution. These opportunities and avenues have not been used by Softalk and instead Softalk has resorted to defamatory and malafide allegations against Quick Heal.

Sandhya Malhotra
(sandhyam@cybermedia.co.in)