Fight escalates as Infosys claims poaching by Cognizant executives Diaz, Gummadi

Mint

8 hours ago

A fresh row has erupted between Infosys Ltd and Cognizant Technology Solutions, just when it appeared that their battle over trade secrets was nearing an end.
Infosys has named two Cognizant officials—chief people officer Kathryn Diaz and president of the company's Americas business Surya Gummadi—as having documents pertaining to the case and for allegedly being involved in poaching its employees that slowed the development of its own healthcare software product, according to court documents seen by Mint.
The new twist to the ongoing legal battle between the two software services companies comes after Infosys, on 9 January, first alleged Cognizant chief executive Ravi Kumar S of deliberately delaying the rollout of its healthcare product, Infosys Helix, as he was in talks for the top job at the Nasdaq-listed company.
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Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant was swift in rejecting Infosys' poaching accusations, saying that Diaz was hired much after Kumar came on board.
Kumar, formerly an Infosys veteran and who was critical to the development of Helix, left the company in October 2022 and joined Cognizant as chief executive officer (CEO) in January 2023.
'Indeed, Infosys's former president Ravi Kumar S installed Diaz as chief people officer after he became Cognizant's CEO in 2023 and she occupied that role as Cognizant targeted Infosys Helix by scheming with and hiring away Infosys executives overseeing the product's development: Shveta Arora (October to December 2023) and Ravi Kuchibhotla (2024)," said Infosys in its 13 June joint report supporting its motion in a Dallas court.
Arora is Cognizant's consulting head whereas Kuchibhotla is its chief strategy officer. Both executives worked at Infosys prior to joining Cognizant in December 2023 and August 2024, respectively. Infosys Helix is a competing software to Cognizant's TriZetto.
'Infosys' ongoing obfuscation does not change the fact that they have been caught red handed stealing Cognizant's intellectual property. Infosys manufactured baseless claims that suffer from multiple factual and legal deficiencies and only serve to distract from its trade secret theft," said Cognizant on 23 June in a reply to Mint's email.
Infosys had yet to respond to Mint's request for comment.
The legal tussle goes back to August last year when Cognizant accused Infosys of stealing trade secrets pertaining to its healthcare software. Infosys denied the allegations and responded with its own counterclaims, suggesting Cognizant had not properly identified the trade secrets it alleged were stolen.
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Subsequently, Infosys upped the ante by publicly naming Cognizant's chief executive S Ravi Kumar in a court filing dated 9 January. It accused Cognizant of hiring Kumar to slow down the development and rollout of a competing software, Helix, a move that nfosys has termed anti-competitive.
The Bengaluru-based company said Gummadi and Diaz had documents containing knowledge pertaining to the case.
'Infosys has explained its position that both Gummadi and Diaz are likely to have documents that are highly relevant to the issues in the case and responsive to multiple requests for production propounded by Infosys," said the company in its joint report supporting its motion.
Infosys mentioned that Gummadi would have documents related to the 2014 acquisition of TriZetto, which is Cognizant's healthcare payer software, and also documents including the strategy behind the acquisition. The Bengaluru-based company added that Gummadi would also have knowledge of Cognizant's strategic approach in the healthcare payer software and IT services markets both before and after the acquisition.
Both companies are fierce competitors in the healthcare space. Cognizant gets almost a third of its revenue, about $5.9 billion, from clients in the health sciences sector, while Infosys gets 7.3% of its revenue, or about $1.4 billion, from clients in this space.
Cognizant in its reply stated that an investigation was launched to respond to Infosys' claims regarding the case. The company said the two executives named by Infosys had no bearing on this case.
'As part of that investigation, Cognizant determined that the high-ranking nature of Gummadi's position as president— Americas and Diaz's position as chief people officer (both are on CTS's leadership team) made them particularly poor fits as custodians because they infrequently draft or receive the types of fact-intensive documents about granular subjects that would be most responsive to Infosys's requests," said Cognizant as part of the joint report of Infosys and Cognizant on 13 June.
'Ms. Diaz in particular, is a poor fit as a custodian in this case because—as Infosys admits, supra at 30-31—she was not hired by Cognizant until months after Ravi Kumar was hired as the CEO. It is thus odd to suggest that she was part of some grand scheme to poach Ravi Kumar and undermine Helix when she was not employed by Cognizant at that time," said Cognizant in its response as part of the report.
Cognizant added that Infosys had not provided it, or the court with any evidence suggesting that Gummadi and Diaz have documents which are not already covered by the other executives Cognizant has identified to respond to Infosys's requests.
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'Infosys has done nothing more to attempt to connect them (Gummadi and Diaz) to this case than point to their job titles," said Cognizant.
Earlier, in a 10 March filing, Cognizant called Infosys's accusations against itself and its CEO as 'preposterous' and 'absurd', adding that Kumar and two other people (Shveta Arora and Ravi Kuchibhotla) named by Infosys were hired on the basis of their skills.
Cognizant, which follows a January-December financial calendar, ended 2025 with $19.74 billion in revenue, while Infosys, which follows an April-March financial calendar, ended FY25 with $19.28 billion in revenue.
The latest developments may quash all hopes of truce as the Dallas court welcomed both parties to discuss matters pertaining to the case over a call with the court in a 23 May order.
Now, Infosys said that it might treble the damages sought from Cognizant.
'The amount in controversy flowing from the antitrust claims alone is significant, likely in excess of hundreds of millions of dollars. Both parties have monetary damages claims against each other, and Infosys is entitled to treble damages and attorneys' fees if it prevails on its antitrust claims," said Infosys in its 13 June report.
Infosys has also sought the court to compel Cognizant to produce documents regarding a similar 'Syntel case,'—a substantial trade secrets dispute between Cognizant arm TriZetto and Syntel—as it claims Cognizant continuously cited excerpts from the case throughout the legal proceedings. In a New York district court, Syntel was found guilty of misappropriating Cognizant trade secrets in 2020.