Employee poaching happens everywhere, but in India it happens on a large scale. A recently filed lawsuit by a smaller rival against outsourcing services firm Cognizant Technology Solutions may shed light on it.

HOV Services, a business process outsourcing firm in Chennai that is also incorporated in Delaware, is alleging that the Teaneck, N.J.-based Cognizant, is trying to "cripple HOV's business on a global scale and to destroy HOV's competitive advantage" by "luring away" its employees in India -- more than 50 over the last several years.

HOV accuses Cognizant, which employs more than 100,000 and has a large workforce in India, of operating a "clandestine operation," and conducting "raids."

It says it obtained a listing of 450 HOV employees that includes their salary, bonuses, their "production efficiencies" and customer project names. HOV's headcount in 2010 was about 9,000. The lawsuit was filed in late January in federal court in New Jersey.