SRINAGAR The Jammu and Kashmir high court on Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reveal within three weeks whether or not it has lay hands on culprits behind theft of Aurangzeb-era copy of the Holy Quran from Shri Pratap Singh (SPS) Museum here in 2003.
As hearing of a Public Interest started before a division bench of the court, counsel for the CBI, Tahir Majid Shamsi, sought three weeks time to enable time to file status report of the investigation.
While granting him the time as sought for, the court directed that CBI shall mention whether or not it has laid its hands on the culprits.
The CBI told court that no results have emerged as yet and efforts would continue in future also.
Prior to it, the court was informed by the Indias premier investigation that the copy of the Quran may be with National Archives of India New Delhi.
During investigation, it came to light that a holy book namely Quran Sharief with similar features was confiscated by the Crime Branch of New Delhi. Accordingly, the authorities of National Archives of India, New Delhi, were approached and relevant information about the said seized Quran Sharief including its photographs have been collected, the CBI informed the court.
Efforts towards its comparison with the available description of Holy Quran, alleged to have been stolen from SPS museum, is underway. The report vide which the Quran presently kept in National Archives of India had been declared as an antiquity has also been collected from Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi and the same is under examination for the said purpose, the report said.
The CBI had also informed that it was also scrutinizing the file pertaining to FIR (106/2003 in police station Rajbagh Srinagar which has collected from the Crime Branch Srinagar.
Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal Emperor, ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent during his reign, which lasted for 49 years from 1658 until his death in 1707.
The judicial 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.
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