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| HC directs CBI probe into theft of rare Mughal era Quran copy from SPS Museum | | | S Sabaqat
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 22 : The state high court today directed the state Crime Branch to hand over to CBI the investigations of a case pertaining to the theft of a copy of the Holy Quran bearing the seal of a Mughal Emperor from Shri Pratap Singh (SPS) Museum, Srinagar, in 2003.
"We direct the investigation of FIR No 106/2003 shall stand transferred to CBI which shall conduct the investigation in the case," said a division bench of Justices Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Ali Mohammad Magrey.
Hearing a Public Interest Litigation, the bench also directed the trial court, which had accepted the Crime Branch's closure report, to handover the case diaries to Crime Branch so as to enable it to hand over the same to the CBI, the premier investigation agency of the courty.
"We are further satisfied that proper and effective investigation will certainly result in tracing of the manuscript of Holy Quran as also identification of culprits," the division bench said.
The directions by the division bench followed statement by Kashmir's Inspector General of Police, admitting that the Crime Branch failed to investigate the case fairly. The IGP had also suggested that CBI can "properly and effectively" investigate the case as it has "technical manpower and expertise to conduct the investigation in such type of cases".
The bench also expressed its displeasure over the final report (closure report) submitted by Crime Branch, observing that it does not comply with the norms of investigation.
The PIL was filed in 2008 by a Srinagar based social organisation, Valley Citizen's Council, seeking directions for the protection and conservation of artifacts, monuments and excavation sites in Kashmir besides directions to find the manuscript of the Quran and other prized articles.
The rare copy of the Quran was stolen from Srinagar's Sri Pratap Singh (SPS) Museum in broad daylight, in September 2003. More than thirteen years have passed but there is no clue of the missing rare copy of Quran.
Pertinently, an FIR No 106/13 was registered by Rajbagh police station in Srinagar, soon after the employees of the Museum found the wooden locker broken and rare copy of the Quran missing.
Three years later police closed the case as "untraced". In 2007, the state government officials took up the matter with CBI, requesting it to investigate the matter, but its officials refused to intervene saying "the incident being local in nature the matter may be got investigated through local police."
The court's intervention has already led to retrieval of 31 copper and silver coins besides one-gun bearing accession number 412 along with other artifacts from Research Wing of the SPS libraries, which were gifted to Shimla Museum in 1973.
The PIL states the archaeological excavations and artefacts of Kashmiri's rich heritage have been neglected and alleged that a number of rare manuscripts and coins were missing from the SPS museum. |
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