BHUBANESWAR: The state museum is yet to trace 17 valuable manuscripts that went missing seven years ago, even as a departmental audit pointed to complicity of a former museum curator . The manuscripts went missing because of negligence on the part of Karunakar Bisoi, who was then curator of the manuscripts section, museum superintendent Manjushree Samantray said quoting the audit report.

The manuscripts reportedly included texts on Tantra, Ayurveda and Dharmasastra . “Bisoi was incharge of the manuscript section when the manuscripts went missing. Verification revealed one palm leaf manuscript and 16 painted and inscribed manuscripts had gone missing,” the superintendent said.

Bisoi retired in 2007, two years after the incident. She said Bisoi’s pension has since been withheld. No police case was filed as the museum officials passed the buck. “I don’t know why a police complaint has not been lodged. The matter had been intimated to director (culture),” said the superintendent.

Meanwhile, one of the two officials, who conducted the audit, died while the other retired. Rajkishor Mishra, a curator, died in 2008 while Dinabandhu Mishra, who was working as documentation assistant in the museum store, retired in 2007.

As many as 37,000 manuscripts on 28 different subjects are preserved in the museum. These are rare manuscripts on Tantra, Ayurveda and Dharmasastra, Mathematics, Vastu, literature, Arthasastra, Kavya, Natya, Kama, Gosastra, Music and Dance and Art and Architecture.

When asked, director (culture) Sushil Dash said based on the enquiry, his predecessor had written to the government to stop the pension of the official held responsible for the manuscripts going missing. “A report regarding missing of manuscripts had been sent to the government following which the pension of Bisoi was withheld,” said Dash.

