A senior Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) scientist Tapan Misra, who has claimed that he was poisoned over three years ago, on Wednesday told news agency ANI “someone definitely wanted to do some harm to the space agency.”
Misra, who alleges he was given arsenic trioxide on May 23, 2017, during a promotion interview at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru, said the solution is to get hold of the culprits and punish them instead of stepping up security of scientists. “Surely it was no work of a street thug but some sophisticated espionage agency inside our organisation… The only solution is to catch the culprit & punish them and not provide security to 2,000 scientists,” he told ANI.
“Fatal dose was probably mixed” with chutney along with Dosa, in snacks after lunch, Misra claimed in a Facebook post titled ‘Long Kept Secret’ on Tuesday. He added that in July 2017, home affairs security personnel met him and alerted him of arsenic poisoning and helped doctors to focus on exact remedy.
He alleged that he later suffered from breathing difficulty, unusual skin eruptions, skin shedding and fungal infections. He also posted the medical report on the social media platform to claim he has been diagnosed with Arsenic toxication by the AIIMS, New Delhi.
“The motive appears to be espionage attack…to remove a scientist with critical contribution of very large military and commercial significance, like expertise in building Synthetic Aperture Radar,” he wrote.
Misra told news agency PTI he wants the central government to investigate the matter. There was, however, no immediate response from ISRO on the scientist’s claims.
Misra currently works as senior advisor at ISRO and is superannuating at the end of this month.
