Srinagar July 02: The J&K High Court on Monday granted three weeks time to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to inform the court about the retrieval of copy of the emperor Aurangzeb era (17th century) Holy Quran, stolen from the SSPS Museum Srinagar in 2003.
Three weeks time was granted to CBI, India’s premier investigating agency to inform the court about the investigation into the theft and recovery of the copy of the Muslim scripture.
The time was granted after Assistant Solicitor General of India sought that more time be granted to the agency for filing the response.
The court was earlier informed by CBI that the copy of the Quran may be with National Archives of India (NAI), New Delhi.
The assistant solicitor general of India had submitted to court a list of excavation sites, under the protection of the Archaeology Survey of India (ASI), and those in the Jammu and Kashmir.
Along with the list, he gave two volumes, one which indicates the short summary with regard each of the sites and monuments while the other one contains high resolution images of the locations.
The work with regard to cataloguing of the coins is also going on, the court was informed during the hearing of a public interest petition.
On previous hearing, the court was informed by the India’s premier investigation agency that the copy of the Quran may be with NAI.
“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 NAI, 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 NAI had been declared as an antiquity has also been collected from ASI and the same is under examination for the said purpose,” the CBI report said.
The agency also informed that it was also scrutinizing the file pertaining to FIR (106/2003 in police station Rajbagh Srinagar collected from the Crime Branch Srinagar.
Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal Emperor, ruled over Indian subcontinent for 49 years from 1658 till 1707.
Thirty one 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 have so far been retrieved after judicial intervention.
