The IT security vendor says it has narrowed down its investigation to a single staffer with the contractor as the main suspect in the case, and has handed over its case notes to the Indian police.

Symantec India says that the police are now investigating the case.

The call centre company, however, is claiming that no data was stolen from its operation.

In the BBC report published last week, and aired on TV, middlemen in Delhi were secretly filmed selling names, addresses and credit plus debit card details to BBC researchers.

Three of the people whose details were provided to the undercover reporters had bought software from Symantec by giving their payment card details to a call centre over the phone, the BBC claims.

Symantec says it stopped routing online sales and other calls to the service provider as soon as the matter came to its attention.

The company says it was planning to discontinue its business relationship with the Indian call centre at the end of March for a number of reasons, but says it has decided to speed up the cessation in the light of the BBC allegations.