-ASG answers allegations
as to how 8600 pages of data were examined in two days
-8600 pages of data from
Aloysius’ phone converted to ‘a PDF’ and searched
By Shehan Chamika Silva
Answering allegations leveled against the Attorney General’s
Department as to how it examined 8600 pages data of Arjun Aloysius’ mobile
phone within two days, Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda PC today
said that “some illiterate people” were making haphazard allegations, because at
the extraction process, the experts had converted the data to a “PDF” file
and using its search engine the relevant details could be found easily.
Making a special statement to the Commission ASG Kodagoda explained
about the process which was adopted by the experts in extracting data from the
mobile phone of Aloysius.
He said when the data of the phone is extracted using a
particular medium to a computer by the experts, that extraction is thereafter
converted to a searchable conventional PDF document which contained 8600 pages.
He said that process of extracting, converting and
downloading was done within 8 hours.
The ASG said subsequently that PDF was searched by both the
experts and the Counsel of the Attorney General’s Department for the purpose of
identifying certain details.
“That is how 8600 pages were scanned and details found
within 48 hours. Not because I am a genius who could go through all those
pages, obviously, illiterate people would think so, but literate people will
know that it was done using the search engine of the PDF file”, Mr Kodagoda
said.
The ASG was of the view that it was the method they had used
in gathering certain details which were submitted in 26 pages to the Commission
when Minister Ravi Karunanayake was testifying
When Justice Prasanna Jayawardena wanted to clarify the fact
that whether the PDF file could be altered or changed at some point during the
extraction process, ASG Kodagoda said the PDF that was received by them was an
uneditable document.
“Kodagoda can’t fabricate messages of Aloysius’ phone,
and that has to be clarified, because some illiterate people are making false
allegations, which only reflect the level of their literacy”, ASG Kodagoda
added.
When Justice Jayawardena said that the Commission was not
concerned about such outside comments, the ASG said “No those comments matters
because we are here to assist the commission only”.
ASG Kodagoda was of the view that it was about safeguarding
his professional reputation from the outside “illiterate comments”.
Senior Counsel Chanaka de Silva, who appears on behalf of
Arjun Mahendran also said that those submissions may or may have not been made
elsewhere, hence, no necessity to be dealing with them at the commission.
The ASG however disagreeing with the counsel’s stance said
that he needs to be concerned about such comments because the Commission is the
only forum he has to speak.
However, he also told the Commission that the method used in
extracting data of mobile phones will not be used for the laptops and computers
because it was impossible.
He said there would be a cloned copy (copy of every data) in
the hard ware of such laptop devices after the extraction and therefore it
would not allow to have a single PDF file of the material extracted from them.
The ASG also said that they will have a mirror image of that
cloned copy of the hardware for the investigation and they will make meaningful
attempts to retrieve the deleted data as well.
When questioned, the ASG said that those extracted data
would be available as a replication form which is readable and he said that the
extraction could be copied to an external drive and give to the Counsel, who
are appearing for the individuals who are subjected to the investigation, on
the assurance of the privacy of that persons.
No comments:
Post a Comment