Colombo Chief Magistrate Lal Bandara yesterday ordered a suspect, arrested by the CID for having allegedly stolen a catalogue of documents, proposals, private audio tapes submitted by the public to President Maithripala Sirisena, to be remanded till 19 January.
The catalogue of documents, proposals and private audio tapes numbering over 100,000 had been included in the website 'Tell the President' which had been illegally hacked into by the suspect.
The suspect has been identified as Anuruddha Abeysuriya, a resident of......Ahangama and he was arrested following a complaint lodged with the CID on 7 January by President's Additional Secretary Chameera Kannangara.
The CID making submissions to Court stated that President Maithripala Sirisena had noticed that someone had unlawfully hacked the website 'Tell the President' which is jointly maintained by the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Telecommunications and ICTA institute.
The CID informed Court that the President had also noted that the person who had hacked the website had thereafter sent the data to a certain media outlet through an e-mail address.
The CID said that inquiries had revealed that the stolen data had been sent to the e-mail address of a journalist in a TV station.
They added that upon being questioned the suspect had told investigators that he had hacked the website without any difficulty.
The Court was told that the suspect had hacked the website in an effort to highlight the shortcomings evident in the website as well as to shed light on the failure of the President to take action on complaints lodged by the people. The CID has also taken into custody a stock of documents and CDs which were in possession of the suspect.
