But HCL Technologies insisted such requests were not “unusual or untoward” and stressed it never stored any of News International’s emails, in a written response to questions from a panel of British lawmakers. News International’s internal emails have become a focus in the phone-hacking scandal amid suspicions about messages that were sent by staff at the publisher’s News of the World tabloid, which was axed last month amid new hacking claims.
The closure of the paper was the start of a crisis in Murdoch’s News Corp. media empire, which has prompted the resignation of several of his close aides and a string of arrests.
HCL’s law firm, Stuart Benson, said News International had asked for information on nine occasions between April 2010 and July this year.