What Action Can Company Take Against Employee???

We had a senior employee who sent resignation by email during his official tour. He had co's laptop which he returned after one months of resignation. On checking we found he had deleted all important data of laptop. Immediately afterwards he started his own business in competition to ours. He was using all information which he had in his laptop.
Please advise what action can company take against this employee?
Akshay Pareek
HRD

Dear Akshay,
You have an option to take legal action against him. You need to consult your lawyer who will be more helpful in resolving this problem.

As per the inputs provided by you there is no clarity on the relieving part. Hope you have relieved him, cleared all his dues and also issued service certificate with out checking the Laptop etc properly.

Once he started his own business then your company officials realized and checked the data and noted.

He seems to be smart because he might have his own plans to start similar business and if so he might have grabbed the data earlier itself. I don't think you can do much if you have received the company assets like Laptop etc., issued the relieving lr etc.,

In case the company assets like Laptop etc., are still in his position, the no-dues certificate is not signed, final settlement is not made, relieving lr & Service certificate is not issued then you can initiate legal action.

Considering the data you have posted it seems that he is smart. If I am not wrong he might have started his business on somebody's name and shows that he is an employee where you can do nothing.

However suggest you to wait for the inputs from some more Seniors.

I think for extracting data, the IT people may extend some help.