No incriminating material was found in the data recovered from the stolen TNPDCL hard drives

Quick action: A contract employee in charge of an annual maintenance contract stole the hard drives and sold them to his colleague in Bengaluru, says a senior police officer. | Photo credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

No incriminating material was found in the data recovered from hard drives that were reported stolen from the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TNPDCL) headquarters in Chennai, police sources said on Monday (June 08, 2026).

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

Data restored

While 18 hard drives were reported stolen, the team found 34 hard drives in the possession of the suspect in Bengaluru. “The hard drives may have been stolen earlier but it was not reported. The data has been recovered and prima facie there is nothing incriminating. A contract employee in charge of an annual maintenance contract stole the hard drives and sold them to his colleague in Bengaluru,” said a senior police officer.

He said a contract worker, Gopinath of Arakkonam, stole the hard drives and sold them to Manohar of Bengaluru. The data on the hard drives was wiped, but investigators were able to retrieve it.

“Gopinath seems to be a habitual offender. He was stealing hard drives from TNPDCL premises. Why the thefts were not reported earlier is under investigation,” the officer said.

Case shifted to CB-CID

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

The theft of the hard drives led to speculation that it was a deliberate attempt to delete or tamper with evidence in an alleged multi-crore fraud at TNPDCL or its allied organisations. A top official of TANGEDCO said that in addition to data protection policies, strict access control measures have been put in place to secure the company’s vital assets.

Tender corruption case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case of alleged corruption in tenders floated by TANGEDCO for supply of distribution transformers in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The CBI, acting on the direction of the Madras High Court, booked the case to investigate allegations of corruption that led to unjust enrichment of bidders and a corresponding loss to the exchequer of ₹397 crore.

Invoking the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, the CBI’s anti-corruption branch registered a case against the then officials of the TANGEDCO Selection Board and Tender Scrutiny Committee and others.

The complainants in the case were Jayaraman Venkatesan, Managing Trustee, Arappor lyakkam; E. Saravanan, Deputy Secretary, AIADMK Advocates Wing, Salem; and Rajkumar of Meikilarpatti in Usilampatti taluk of Madurai district.

Published – 08 Jun 2026 21:36 IST