KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency on Monday submitted that one of the accused in the case related to the theft of computer hardware from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) deleted files from Solid-State Drives (SSDs). The files contained vital information regarding the functioning of the ship under construction at the Cochin Shipyard.
The agency made the submission at the NIA court while considering the bail petition of the accused, Sumit Kumar of Bihar and Daya Ram of Rajasthan. According to NIA, the stolen SSDs were part of a multi-functional console, which is vital when the ship comes under attack. While the accused persons stole five SSDs, the data on four were deleted by first accused Sumit Kumar. The deleted data concerns the ship’s propulsion system, power management system, CCTV management and battle management system. Besides, the SSDs also contained architectural details of the ship.
With the submission, NIA claimed that the accused persons committed an offence under Section 66F of the Information and Technology Act amounting to cyber terrorism. The court asked NIA why the offence was charged against second accused Daya Ram as well when the data on SSDs was accessed by Sumit Kumar. To this, NIA claimed Daya Ram also played a part in removing sensitive computer component of national importance from the prestigious IAC project.
The theft was carried out during the lunch break on various dates between August and September 2019, with around 1,500 persons working at a time on the IAC project. The court will hear the bail petition again next Monday. Last week, NIA had filed the chargesheet against the two accused.