Indian-American engineer, who was working with a missile defence contractor in the US state of Alabama, was fired from his job over speaking to his dying relative in India in Hindi. The 78-year-old engineer has been identified as Anil Varshney and he has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, AL.com, a digital news outlet, reported.
Varshney, who was fired last year, filed a lawsuit against Huntsville-based defence contractor Parsons Corporation for “systematic discriminatory actions”, the report added.
As per the lawsuit, Varshney, a senior systems engineer, had received a video call from his dying brother-in-law KC Gupta in India. His brother-in-law called him to say goodbye as he was on his deathbed. Varshney entered an empty cubicle and accepted the call thinking that he might never have the opportunity to talk to his brother-in-law, the report mentioned.
The lawsuit stated that Varshney ensured that there were no classified materials or any material pertaining to the work of Parsons Corporation. Varshney was interrupted by a co-worker, who asked him whether he was on a video call. He immediately hung up as soon as the worker told him that call was not allowed.
In his lawsuit, Varsney pleaded that the co-worker “falsely and intentionally” reported that an Indian-American engineer had committed a “security violation by revealing confidential information and/or accepting this call during a confidential meeting or with confidential information in the background”.
The lawsuit mentioned that the co-worker felt intimidated as Varshney spoke in a foreign language.
Despite there being no policy prohibiting the call, Varshney was accused of a serious security violation and was fired from the job. He was blacklisted from future Missile Defense Agency work, effectively ending his career.
The suit further stated that Parsons’ supervisor and MDA security personnel asked him to pack his personal belongings, and searched through every file in his cubicle and through his personal belongings.
The suit added that Varshney was humiliated and that the defendants were wrongly accusing him of being a spy for speaking in a foreign language to a family member who was on a deathbed.
Varshney settled in Huntsville in 1968 along with his wife who has worked in NASA since 1989.
By way of the suit, the Indian-American engineer demanded the reinstatement of the position “comparable to his formal position”. He further pleaded for the reinstatement of privileges, and the revocation (or removal) of any disciplinary records in his file.
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