26, 777 out of 30,000 hacked documents recovered: Rajuk tells HC

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) on Tuesday informed the High Court that some 26,777 out of total 30,000 documents which were disappeared from its server have been recovered.

Imam Hasan, a lawyer who stood for Rajuk, presented the information to the High Court bench led by Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder.

Hasan also said the documents were hacked from the server by cyber criminals, but those have been retrieved.

The deleted files have been recovered by the consulting firm Technohaven Company Limited, according to Rajuk.

Following the update, the High Court directed the three-member inquiry committee of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to submit a report within 60 days of receiving the order and fixed  July 9 for next order.

Lawyer Md Khurshid Alam Khan stood for the ACC  while Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state.

The incident was first reported by Prothom Alo on 29 December 2022, with a headline stating '30,000 customers' documents are missing from Rajuk.'

On 2 January, senior lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan brought the report to the attention of the court.

Following this, the High Court sought an explanation from the Rajuk Chairman and asked the ACC to investigate the matter.

On Tuesday (2 May), Rajuk filed an affidavit confirming the recovery of the missing documents, while the ACC said that they are currently investigating the incident. The committee has already requested information from Rajuk.

According to Rajuk's affidavit, on 6 December 2022, the documents stored in BDCSL's data center were deleted, and the Construction Permit (CP) system was stopped after a malicious attack. The system was later reactivated on 21 December.

On 22 December, Rajuk filed a GD at Motijheel police station, while on 26 January, they made an agreement with Buet for investigation over the incident. Buet's investigation team submitted an interim report on the matter on 29 April, and their final report is expected soon.