Police Sunday raided the former Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) main office under a search warrant.
Police explained that search was conducted in connection to an ongoing case.
The warrant states that the reason for the warrant is related to case being investigated by the General Investigation Department of the police. The purpose of the search was to gather evidence regarding the formatted and missing hard drives on computers transferred to the new office along with some missing important party documents that were not transferred to the new office after the Civil Court handed the reins of the party to its chief adviser, President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
Police entered the building in company of Abdul Aleem, Gayoom's son in-law , after summoning him to the police station.
The PPM office is no longer operating at H. Thema, but Gayoom is running a private office from the building. Defying the court order, Gayoom held a council meeting at the office Sunday night. The meeting was ongoing when police entered the premises.
All the PPM equipment at the old office had been transferred to a new PPM office established in Dharubaaruge earlier. PPM had stated later that many important documents were missing and the hard drives in the computers transferred were either missing or removed.
Gayoom's faction of the party had protested the transferring of equipment. Control over the party had been handed to President Yameen after a battle in court.
