When senior Infosys executive Amit Budhiraja smothered his wife and then killed himself last week, not many in the Bangalore’s Information Technology (IT) circuit were excessively surprised. The tragedy was yet another example of the rising number of crimes of passion in the city’s IT industry.

“The level of violence in Bangalore — across industries but particularly in IT — is only going to increase,” warns Dona Fernandes of Vimochana, a non-governmental organisation that fights for women’s rights in Bangalore. “And the turbulence is due to a dramatic social transition, changes in lifestyles and female empowerment which men find difficult to handle.”

Indeed, Budhiraja’s crime is just one among many recent incidents of violence in Bangalore’s IT sector. In 2006, Tania Banerjee, an employee of insurance company Aviva’s business process outsourcing outfit in Bangalore, was murdered by her boyfriend, an IT professional. He thought she was too “close” to another male friend.

According to insiders, instances of jealousy, infidelity and extra-marital affairs abound in techieland, often leading to tragic consequences. Last year, a senior computer programming executive at Intel was beaten up by goons his girlfriend had allegedly hired as she suspected he was two-timing her.

In yet another incident in December 2003, Shubha, the fiancée of Intel Bangalore staffer B.V. Girish, got a hired killer to murder him. Shubha, it was later learned, had been going around with someone else but had got engaged to Girish. On December 3, 2003, she forced Girish to take her out for dinner and made him stop his bike near the flight landing point on Ring Road, Bangalore. Arun (her boyfriend) and Venkatesh (a hired killer), were waiting for them on the other side of the road. When Girish was busy watching a flight, Venkatesh came and hit him on the head with a shock absorber. Shubha then took Girish to Manipal Hospital, where he died a little later. She told the police that an unidentified person had assaulted her fiancé and run away. But the Bangalore police soon collected enough evidence to nail Shubha and she was subsequently arrested for plotting the murder of Girish.

However, despite the rise in the number of such crimes of passion among IT employees, not everybody is convinced that it is an actual trend. “Yes, we have seen the number of such cases rise within the IT industry, but I’d refrain from calling it a trend,” says a senior police officer at the Bangalore police’s cyber cell, requesting anonymity. And Infosys refused to comment.

One of the basic problems confronting the IT industry, say insiders, is the stressed out lives its employees lead. Often IT couples — married or unmarried — spend very little time together because of the pressure at work. In many cases, when one spouse returns from work, it is time for the other to step out for the night shift or for that video conference with the head office in California.

“Your whole life is taken up by the job,” says U.V. Srinivas, a senior programme executive at MPhasis. Anubhuti Arya, a senior executive at Wipro, seconds that. “Although there are some support systems in place, they aren’t sufficient,” she admits.

As for the authorities, they are on the defensive today. “Yes, it’s true that such things happen,” says Surya Ciryam, HR head of IT firm Spheris. “But which industry doesn’t have its dark side? Tell me one field where there is no stress or competition. Why do the media have to single out IT? Don’t tragedies occur everywhere?”

Companies say they are doing what they can to help their employees to de-stress. Spheris has interesting stress-busting mechanisms in place, which it calls “fun@workplace” workouts. Activities range from music or yoga sessions during lunch to salsa moves in the evening.

MindTree Consulting too has enlisted the services of professional counsellors who keep tabs on the personal and psychological well-being of employees. “Our counsellors meet our employees on a regular basis. Cases of tension or conflict at work do get reported. And all this is completely confidential, and the company bears the cost of the counselling,” says Puneet Jaitley, head, HR, MindTree Consulting.

Yet even if outlets for relaxation are available in some IT firms, there is a lack of “optimum utilisation,” says Dr Dwarakanath Raman, a Chennai-based naturopathy expert and yoga instructor who has run de-stressing programmes in the IT industry and conducted studies on the rising stress levels in the industry. Among those IT employees who do take up counselling or yoga or physical activities, “only about 33 per cent follow up on those activities,” says Dr Raman.

Typically, counsellors have to deal with complaints of physical violence by spouses — both by men and women. That said, few IT employees actually go in for professional counselling. “For some reason, even among educated people, seeking counselling seems anathema,” says Dr Ali Khwaja of Banjara Academy, Bangalore’s oldest counselling centre. “From the looks of it the Infosys tragedy was a clear case of an illness that was left unaddressed,” he adds.

Dr Sudha Menon, a preventive care expert and counsellor at Sagar Apollo Hospital, Bangalore, who has worked with IT industry employees over the years, is blunt. “The bulk of IT sector employees is challenged in terms of all-round growth,” she declares. “Very few — including the ones coming from the metros — can actually hold a conversation outside of their work. Few have interests in music, books or hobbies.” Like “blinkered horses” they’ve been trained to do one thing alone, while failing to nurture other aspects of their personalities, she says. So when confronted with relationship issues, they find themselves at sea, become insecure, suspicious and resort to violence and blackmail, argues Menon.

Amit Budhiraja’s murder of his wife and subsequent suicide may have robbed the IT industry of some of its sheen. It’s made it look like any other trade — with its usual share of pettiness, skulduggery, insecurity and plain and simple evil.

Even so, many would like the incident to be viewed as an exception rather than the rule. “Yes, there are problems, but I still love working in IT. The happy experiences are more than the bad ones,” says Anubhuti Arya as she takes off for an afternoon swim.