Income tax (I-T) officials who stormed into IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s office at Nirlon House in Worli on Thursday evening were armed with a yellow box, or a 3D machine.
The Rs4.5 lakh machine is expected to unravel the mystery about IPL funds.
The machine, according to I-T sources, is used to copy data stored in a computer. “Even if files have been deleted or hidden, the machine easily recovers the data. Also, if data/files have been downloaded from the Internet or emails, they can be recovered along with IP addresses,” an official who was part of the survey team said.
The machine can even recover information from a broken CD. “If all pieces of a broken CD are recovered, they need to be cello-taped together and put in the machine. The machine can recover all data stored on the CD,” the official said.
The official said a three-member team had initially surveyed Modi’s office and “after spending a couple of hours, they felt the need to call for a specialised team, which could recover electronic data stored in computers in the office”.
The special team, armed with the 3D machine, then reached the office and was recovering data from the computers. “They got along two external hard disks to store all data recovered,” the official added.