Two servers containing scanned copies of old case records of the Supreme Court were reportedly stolen from the record room of the apex court. The theft was reported to the Delhi Police by MV Ramesh, Registrar (Administration 1) of the Supreme Court, on July 6 last year. Police registered an FIR at Tilak Marg police station on Thursday after Preliminary Enquiry (PE).
Sources in the Delhi Police said no breakthrough or arrest has been made in the case yet. The FIR will soon be transferred to the Crime Branch because of the sensitive nature of the case.
A police source said old case records of the Supreme Court as per procedure are disposed off and their scanned soft copies are kept in the servers.
The Registrar (administration), in his complaint to the police, said a scanning agency company Dr ITM limited (an ISO 27001:2005 certified group) was awarded the contract of scanning/digitalising the old records of the Supreme Court registry since January 2014 to December 2015.
“Two servers of the scanning agency containing the scanned data of old records of the Supreme Court were lying in the main record room of the Supreme Court registry. On June 6 last year the servers were to be collected by the scanning agency under the supervision of the Additional Registrar (Computerisation) of the Supreme Court,” the complaint stated.
“ A representative of the scanning agency Gopal J Gupta was called on June 6, 2016 to the record room under the supervision of the additional registrar of the apex court in order to collect the servers after wiping off (transferring) the scanned data” it further stated.
The additional registrar (computerisation) deputed an official to accompany the scanning agency representative and wipe off the scanned data from the servers to facilitate their release as the contract with the company was over.
“When the servers were checked, it was found by the scanning agency representative in the presence of the deputed official of the registry, that all the parts related to both the servers were missing and only two empty boxes or what can be called bodies of the servers were found along with two monitor screens that were lying there,” the complaint alleged.
Based on the complaint of the Registrar (Administration) an FIR under section 380 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Tilak Marg police station.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi district, BK Singh, was unavailable for comments despite numerous calls made to him.