The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed chargesheet against two persons, Sumit Kumar Singh of Munger, Bihar and Daya Ram of Hanumangarh, Rajasthan, in relation to the theft of computer spare parts from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC), which is under construction at the Cochin Ship Yard Limited.
The case against the accused is that they stole critical electronic components including processors, random access memory and solid state drives installed on board the vessel.
The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidences of offences, theft, lurking house trespass and dishonestly breaking open receptacle containing property under the Indian Penal Code and cyber terrorism under Section 66F(1)(B) of the Information Technology Act.
The case was originally registered at the Ernakulam Town South Police Station on a complaint from the Deputy General Manager of the IAC project. The NIA re-registered the case on September 26, 2019 and took over the investigation. The investigation revealed that both the accused were engaged as contract employees for painting work on board the IAC.
While being on work, they had observed the computer systems functioning on the warship under construction and conspired to commit theft of computer hardware components, for monetary gain. The accused later trespassed into the locations on board the IAC, where the critical computer resources were installed and committed theft knowing that the computer parts pertained to the security of the nation. Later, the accused had sold one processor for monetary gain, said a communication from NIA.
