The tensions have again flared up just as it seemed the legal stand-off between Infosys Ltd and Cognizant Technology Solutions was easing.

In a latest media reportInfosys has named two senior Cognizant executives—Chief People Officer Kathryn Diaz and Surya Gummadi, president of Cognizant’s Americas division—as being allegedly involved in poaching its key personnel.

Further, the IT service provider has claimed that this has hampered the development of its healthcare platform, Helix.

Poaching Tied To Strategic Sabotage

Following the latest escalation, the legal battle went way back when Infosys’ has court filing on January 9.

In this, Infosys first accused Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S, formerly a senior Infosys executive, of deliberately stalling Helix’s rollout while negotiating his move to lead the Nasdaq-listed firm.

It appears that Kumar had been instrumental in the Helix project during his time at Infosys, which he left in October 2022 and assumed his new role at Cognizant in January 2023.

Later on Infosys said that its former president, Ravi Kumar S, had appointed Kathryn Diaz as chief people officer after becoming Cognizant’s CEO in 2023, in a joint report submitted to a Dallas court on June 13.

According to Infosys, while Diaz held this role, Cognizant targeted its Helix platform by planning with and hiring key Infosys executives involved in its development—Shveta Arora between October and December 2023, and Ravi Kuchibhotla in 2024.

Notably, Arora is now heading Cognizant’s consulting and Kuchibhotla is appointed as the chief strategy officer, both previously worked on the Helix platform at Infosys.

During December 2023, Arora joined Cognizant and Kuchibhotla followed in August 2024.

Here mentioned Helix is positioned as a rival to Cognizant’s TriZetto platform.

Cognizant Promptly Dismissing The Allegations

In response to this, Cognizant has  promptly dismissed Infosys’ poaching allegations further stating that Diaz was appointed well after Kumar had joined the company.

Further adding that Infosys’ continued attempts to mislead did not change the fact that it had been caught red-handed stealing Cognizant’s intellectual property.

This is not the first time as these rivals had long-running legal battles over the trade secrets.

This dispute dates way back to August last year, when Cognizant first accused Infosys of misappropriating trade secrets to its healthcare software.

Then, Infosys denied the allegations and filed counterclaims, arguing that Cognizant had failed to adequately specify the information allegedly stolen.

During its June 13 filing, Infosys claimed that both Gummadi and Diaz possess documents that are relevant to the ongoing case, reinforcing its claims of targeted interference in the Helix project.