Models' death: Retrieval of data from hard disk tough, say cops

KOCHI: As scuba divers of Kerala Fire and Rescue Service department are trying hard to recover hard disk containing CCTV footage of Hotel No 18 where Miss South India Ansi Kabeer and two others attended a night party before their death in a car accident, cyber experts said that there is only less than 10 per cent chance to retrieve data from the sunken computer component. Two scuba divers carried out an underwater search for the missing hard disk near Kannankattu bridge from 1.30pm to 6 pm on Monday. 

No 18 hotel owner Roy J Vayalat had admitted to the police that he directed his staff to remove the hard disk containing the hotel’s CCTV footage and dump it in Vembanad lake near his house after the road accident that took the lives of Ansi, former Miss Kerala runner-up Anjana Shajan and Mohammad Ashiq.

The deceased persons had attended a night party at the hotel and while returning in a car to Thrissur hit a motor bike before crashing onto a tree on the roadside at Chakaraparambu in the wee hours of November 1. “It was following a request by the investigation team that we assigned two of our scuba divers to carry out the underwater search. The search was carried out near the Kannankattu bridge. We ended the search by sunset. The police have asked us to conduct a search at other places near the bridge on Tuesday. As the lake has undercurrents, there is a possibility of dumped hard disk drifting to other places,” an officer of Fire and Rescue Service said. 

Cyber experts said that even if the hard disk is recovered by underwater divers, there is minimal chance to recover the data from it. “The data in the hard disk is stored in a magnetic strip attached to the main board. If the magnetic tape is intact, the data can be retrieved but that is also not an easy process,” an officer with Kerala Cyber Cell said and added that it would be a rare case in Kerala Police’s history if the hard disk thrown into water is recovered and data retrieved. 

Nandakishore Harikumar, CEO of Technisanct, a cyber security firm in Kochi, said that retrieval of data will depend on the condition of the hard disk. “Retrieving data is possible. But it all depends on the level of degradation that has happened to the clusters,” he said.