Times of India: New
Delhi: Sunday, 07 September 2014.
The Centre has asked the CBI to investigate the
case relating to mysterious disappearance of Sunil Upadhyay, chief conservation
officer at Kolkata's Indian Museum, since July 3.
Petitioner Kishan Mohan Upadhyay had moved the
Supreme Court with a habeas corpus petition for an independent investigation
into the Indian Museum official case, linking it to possible mischief as he had
pointed out several irregularities in the maintenance of artefacts in the
museum.
The petitioner said he has received information
from the ministry of culture through an RTI saying, "Director, CBI, has
been requested to take up the case of disappearance of Sunil Kumar Upadhyay,
Preservation Officer, Indian Museum, for investigation".
The petitioner had alleged that Upadhyay was
unhappy about the happenings in the museum and had left his mobile phone at
home before going missing on July 3. He is an alumnus of Delhi University.
His contemporaries at Jubilee Hall hostel in Delhi
University helped Upadhyay's relative to move the petition through advocate
Anirudh Sharma and request the apex court to engage an agency with inter-state
jurisdiction to track the missing officer.
The petitioner had feared foul play. "It is
an open secret now in public domain that he had raised his voice against
corruption and irregularities prevailing in Indian Museum for which he has paid
a price," he said.
There were apprehensions that Upadhyay was
courting trouble by acting as a whistleblower and raising inconvenient
questions about misuse of public funds, mismanagement and disappearance of
artifacts or replacing them with fake ones.
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