18 December 2020 12:00 am
By Yoshitha Perera
Former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardena handed over his personal mobile phone and laptop to the PCoI probing Easter Sunday attacks, after deleting all data and making it irreversible, it was revealed .
This was informed when the OIC of the Digital Forensic Laboratory of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted his report to the Commission.
The Commission on September 14 ordered the Police Unit of the PCoI to obtain the personal phone and the laptop used by former SIS Director to record conversations he had with senior security officials regarding Easter Sunday attacks.
When former SIS Director Jayawardena testified before the Commission on September 14, he had presented an audio recording of a telephone conversation between him and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando after the Easter Sunday attack.
Mr. Jayawardena informed the Commission that after recording the following conversation which he had with former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, he had transferred it to his laptop and to a Compact Disk (CD).
Meanwhile, the Commissioners had also directed the Police Unit to send the particular laptop which stored the conversation, to the Government Analyst's department for further inspection and obtain a report.
OIC of the Digital Forensic Unit Sampath Kumara Senaratne informed the Commission that when SDIG Jayawardena's phone was inspected, all the information had been deleted, making it 'Factory Reset' or in the condition when the mobile phone was first used.
He informed the Commission that there was no way of reproducing the deleted content as a result.
Commissioner: "Did you ask SDIG Nilantha Jayawardena about such a factory reset ?"
OIC Senaratne: "He told me that he had given the mobile phone to his wife and that he had deleted everything related to national security during his previous use,"