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CID continuing probe on Epic Lanka CEO and engineers
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is conducting a probe to arrest an engineer from Epic Lanka Technologies over the disappearance of a massive dump of classified pharmaceutical information from the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) database.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General’s Department told court this week that the deletion of data could be part of a conspiracy hatched by the “drug mafia”. The story of missing NMRA files was first broken by the Sunday Times on August 8 this year.
Just four engineers of Epic Lanka, the IT firm that won the contract to manage the NMRA’s database, have access to it, the CID informed the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court. One of them is alleged to have deleted the data. Detectives recorded statements from several senior employees of Epic Lanka. Data deletion is an offence under the Computer Crimes Act, the CID noted.
The disappearance of files from the Lanka Government Cloud (LGC) was first discovered on July 9 when an NMRA employee checking for supporting documentation related to an application found it missing. She alerted the NMRA’s IT Division which in turn notified Epic Lanka. It checked the database and found the information had been deleted.
The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) together with a group of experts from the University of Moratuwa are trying to restore the data, court was told. The CID told court that snapshots of the NMRA data along with historical logs have been obtained for examination. However, the erased files are yet to be recovered.
A snapshot by itself is not a backup, according to published information. But it can be used as a critical part of the backup process. A snapshot allows for historical data from a report to be captured and maintained. The data is periodically stored in a table for historical report creation and analysis.
The CID also arrested Epic Lanka’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tharindra Kalpage and produced him in court. The suspect’s negligence and failure to ensure the data was uploaded to a backup system was a violation of the company’s agreement with NMRA, disrupting the regulator’s activities and causing financial losses, investigators said.
Although the CID claimed it started its probe on a complaint by NMRA, it was his client who first lodged a written complaint with the CID on July 19 over the disappearance of the data, Nalinda Indatissa, PC, appearing for the suspect, said.
His client was only responsible for administrative matters at the firm and did not have access to the database concerned, Mr Indatissa told Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya. He had launched an internal inquiry on learning the data was missing and found it to have been deleted by one of his staff. He had told the CID he believed there was more to the incident than simple negligence.
Mr Indatissa likened his client’s arrest to a hypothetical incident where court files go missing due to the fault of a clerk but the police end up arresting the Magistrate who made the complaint.
After considering the submissions, the Additional Magistrate refused a CID request to remand the suspect and released him on two sureties of Rs. 1 million each. The suspect was also ordered to surrender his passport.
Senior Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris appeared for the Attorney General. Attorneys-at-Law Shehan De Silva, Kavindu Indatissa and Pasindu Gihan Batagoda also appeared for the suspect.