BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Infosys filed a counterclaim against rival Cognizant in a Texas federal court on Thursday, accusing the U.S.-based firm of engaging in anti-competitive practices and poaching key executives.

India's second-largest software company accused Cognizant of anti-competitive practices such as including clauses in contracts that stop clients from awarding IT services work to competitors and refusing them training on its software.

The Bengaluru-based company also said Cognizant indulged in targeted recruitment of key senior executives, including appointing S Ravi Kumar as its CEO in 2023, that delayed its ability to develop a competing software product called Infosys Helix.

Infosys and Cognizant did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments.

The counterclaim comes after Cognizant subsidiary TriZetto (AXPAST.UL) sued Infosys last August, accusing the Indian tech major of stealing trade secrets related to its healthcare insurance software.

TriZetto's Facets and QNXT are used by healthcare insurance companies to automate administrative tasks.

In its complaint the Teaneck, New Jersey-based company said Infosys misused TriZetto's software to create "Test Cases for Facets," which improperly repackaged TriZetto's data into an Infosys product.

Infosys has sought three times its damages suffered as well as the awarding of attorney fees and costs related to the case. The quantum of damages was not disclosed in the filing.

The case is Cognizant TriZetto Software Group Inc v. Infosys Ltd, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, No. 3:24-cv-02158-X.