HCL Technologies has denied allegations by a British Labour MP that data pertaining to News International – its client - were attempted to be destroyed at the company's storage facility in Chennai.
News International, which owns the scandal-ridden News of the World, announced the closure of the tabloid earlier this week after allegations of hacking phones of families of military personnel and 2005 terrorist attack victims.
HCL Technologies manages IT infrastructure of News International based on an outsourcing contract that was signed in 2009.
“We categorically confirm that HCL Technologies does not and has not stored any data either in the UK or anywhere else in the world,” HCL said referring to remarks by Mr Tom Watson, the former Labour Cabinet Office minister who has led the campaign to expose phone-hacking scandal.
Mr Watson told an emergency Commons debate that: “…the police should also ask Mr James Murdoch (the chairman of News International) and Ms Rebekah Brooks (chief executive of News International) whether they know of the attempted destruction of data at the HCL storage facility in Chennai.”
HCL chose not to respond to specific queries mailed to the company, but said that it was “wholly impossible for there to have been any destruction of data held by HCL and any suggestions to the contrary is misleading.”
HCL said that over the past two months, the company has been fully co-operating with the Metropolitan Police at the request of News International. “Due to the ongoing investigations and client confidentiality, HCL Technologies cannot, under any circumstances, go into further details on this matter at this stage.”