Attack Was Work Of Sophisticated Espionage Agency, Not of Street Thug: ISRO’s Tapan Misra

Tapan Misra in a Facebook post on Tuesday made a sensational claim that he was poisoned with deadly arsenic trioxide on May 23, 2017, during a promotion interview at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru.

New Delhi: A day after making sensational claims of a poison attack, top ISRO scientist Tapan Misra has reiterated that arsenic poisoning was not a work of a street thug but a well-planned attack by an espionage agency that targeted Indian Space Research Organisation at the top level. “Someone definitely wanted to do some harm to the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO). The only solution is to catch the culprit and punish them. Not provide security to 2,000 scientists,” ISRO scientist Tapan Mishra was quoted by news agency ANI a day after he made revelations of a poison attack by arsenic three years ago.

Tapan Misra in a Facebook post on Tuesday made a sensational claim that he was poisoned with deadly arsenic trioxide on May 23, 2017, during a promotion interview at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru. Mishra also posted photos of his skin peeling off and a prescription from AIIMS that showed how he had to undergo treatment. Tapan Mishra is a Senior Advisor at ISRO and would be retiring on January 31. Earlier, he has also served as Director of Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

In a Facebook post titled, “Long Kept Secret”, Misra further claimed that in July 2017, Home Affairs security personnel met him and alerted him of arsenic poisoning and helped doctors to focus on exact remedy.

Misra also claimed that he later suffered from health issues including severe breathing difficulty, unusual skin eruptions, skin shedding and fungal infections. Along with his post, he also added images of his 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 alleged in his post.