Burglary in minister's chamber

KOLKATA: In a major security breach at Writers' Buildings, thieves
broke into the ante-chamber of the minister of state for information
and cultural affairs, Soumendranath Bera, on Friday morning and stole
the RAM and hard disc from his personal assistant's computer.

The minister's room is on the secretariat's second floor, just above
the rotunda and beside the cabinet room. The police suspect insiders
are involved in the theft that was noticed in the morning. The
miscreants who probably wanted to access data stored in the computer
in the minister's office are suspected to have opened the CPU in the
morning when the room was opened for cleaning around 8 am.

Rana Ray, PA to Bera, lodged a complaint with Hare Street police
station. Police officers inspected the PA's room, adjoining the
minister's chamber, and started a probe on Friday afternoon.

The PA's room is just outside the minister's chamber. One can enter it
from the minister's room as well as the corridor. Police suspect that
the miscreants entered from the corridor.

Ray said that they were in office till 7.30 pm on Thursday and the
computer was in order when they left office. He admitted some
important data had gone with the stolen hard disc and RAM.

Noticing the crime when he tried switching on the computer in the
morning, Ray said, "It would not operate... it must have got locked
when the thief tried to log in but failed to give the right password."
The thief then reportedly snapped the mouse of his computer.

Bera, who was in office when the crime was discovered, was at his
wit's end and the chief secretary was informed.

Earlier, two incidents of theft had been reported from the chief
minister's office at New Delhi's Banga Bhavan in 2009. In those
thefts, too, the RAM and hard disc had been stolen but none was
arrested.

The theft inside Writers' left security staff puzzled as surveillance
had been increased in the secretariat following terror threats over
the years. "The crime is an eye-opener, showing that even a minister's
chamber is not safe," an official said.