No incriminating material found in data retrieved from TNPDCL’s stolen hard disks: Police

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Swift action: The contract employee in charge of the annual maintenance contract stole the hard disks and sold them to his associate in Bengaluru, says a senior police officer. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

No incriminating material had been found in the data recovered from the hard disks that were reported stolen from the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TNPDCL) headquarters in Chennai, police sources said on Monday (June 8, 2026).

A special team of the Greater Chennai Police investigating the sensational case retrieved the data deleted from the hard disks and found nothing incriminating.

While 18 hard disks were reported stolen, the team found 34 hard disks in the possession of the suspect in Bengaluru. “Hard disks may have been stolen on earlier occasions, too, but not reported. The data have been recovered and prima facie, there is nothing incriminating. The contract employee in charge of the annual maintenance contract stole the hard disks and sold them to his associate in Bengaluru,” a senior police officer said.

He said the contract worker, Gopinath of Arakkonam, stole the hard disks and sold them to Manohar of Bengaluru. The data in the hard disks were erased, but the investigators managed to retrieve them.

“Gopinath seems to be a habitual offender. He has been stealing hard disks from the TNPDCL premises. Why the thefts were not reported earlier is being looked into,” the officer said.

The Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police will investigate the theft of the hard disks from the TNPDCL headquarters. The case was transferred by Director-General of Police and Head of Police Force (DGP/HoPF) Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, given the sensitive nature of the case, police sources said.

The theft of the hard disks led to speculation that it was a deliberate attempt to erase or tamper with evidence in an alleged multi-crore scam in the TNPDCL or in its allied organisations. A top official in TANGEDCO said that besides a data protection policy, strict access c