Cyber forensic labs in pipeline to help taxman retrieve deleted data

NEW DELHI: Income tax sleuths, investigating cases of tax evasion anywhere in the country, may soon be armed with cyber forensic lab facilities by which deleted files and emails from assesses��� computers can be recovered.

Such facilities are now available only in Delhi and Mumbai where taxmen have succeeded in retrieving such deleted files involving a transaction worth Rs 200 crore during the last few months, an official of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), who did not wish to be identified, told SundayET. One of such cases in Delhi was related to an undisclosed amount of Rs 44 crore.

In fact, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had indicated in an internal meeting with top tax officials recently that cyber forensic labs would soon be set up in the rest of the 12 directorates of Income Tax investigation, the official said.

These are located at Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Patna, Chandigarh and Guwahati to name a few. The new labs which will help the department in gathering and analysing electronic data and digital evidence, will be set up with the help of Centre for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC).

The two existing facilities in Delhi and Mumbai, which too were set up by government-run CDAC in March this year, are equipped with advance ICT tools which have helped the investigating directorates to speed up scrutinising tax evasion cases.

As has been explained by an I-T official, taxmen carry portable sets of machines to assesses��� houses or offices and get mirror images of everything inside their computers which even include deleted materials.

���This method has helped us analysing cloned data of assesses��� computers while keeping the sealed computers untouched. Once the original machines remain sealed, no one can later claim that those are tampered with,��� an official said in the condition of anonymity. The directorates of Income Tax investigation (DITI) are engaged in activities ranging from collection of intelligence on direct tax evasion to conducting search operation to unearth black money.