Former ISRO SAC Director Tapan Misra had claimed to have had an attempt of assassination wherein he was poisoned with arsenic on the 23 May 2017. This revelation brings stunning clarity to the threats to the lives of India’s top scientists. In an exclusive conversation, Tapan Misra spoke to NewsX and said: “We are silent because we think it will spoil the agency’s name but it is important to stand up to these elements & that’s what I did.” The top scientist very importantly added that punishment must be served expeditiously and stressed how this is not a one-off situation. From Misra’s viewpoint, a continuous vigil is needed to ensure that such incidents don’t repeat.
Misra said that the govt establishments are following up and supporting him but demanding punishments for his culprits, Misra stressed why it is the need of the hour that our scientists need a fast resolution, not the one that takes 20 years. Misra alleged that there are internal spies helping those foreign elements. He further demanded both the foreign elements and the internal spies should be punished. These shocking claims came to light when Tapan Mishra, former director of ISRO, recently released a post on Facebook titled ‘Long Kept Secret’, wherein he reveals that he was poisoned with deadly arsenic trioxide more than 3 years ago during a promotion interview at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru.
Set to retire on January 31, the senior adviser to ISRO called this an assassination attempt to harm someone who has made significant contributions holding military and commercial significance. He further claimed that he is suspicious that such attempts are being made in attempts to reorder the hierarchy within the organization. It is time for the country’s law to back our scientists and special protection in law must be ensured for scientists like him who whistleblow harassment. There is an urgency for public recognition of scientific achievements and enlargement of national awards and scholarships for scientific success to back our country’s core scientists.
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After the repeated attempts on his life with the first being on 23rd May 2017, and the second one being made in July 2019, where he was poisoned with gaseous poison, Mr. Mishra believes that the attack is being made by people embedded in the system who want to harm the scientists and the organization. He further says that he has released the post in order to get himself justice and to prevent such nefarious acts from happening.
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