CBI spotlight on IIT professor

MUMBAI: A professor of the physics department at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

On Thursday, teams from the CBI turned up at the office, house and laboratories of DS Misra and reportedly seized a laptop and personal computer.

A CBI team also visited the office of a consultancy firm in Andheri, allegedly owned by Misra.

Though CBI spokesman G Mohanty denied having any information on the development, official sources confirmed the CBI was investigating charges that the professor had amassed assets running into crores of rupees, disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Misra had developed a method to make coloured artificial diamonds pure white and thus increase their value and had shared this with some companies in Singapore, the sources claimed.

“Though Misra developed the therapy, it is the property of IIT-B. He cannot share it with anyone from outside the IIT,” said a senior professor at IIT-B.

The officials started their searches around 9 am on Thursday and operations were going on till late in the night.

“We were surprised to see some people waiting outside Misra’s office even before it opened. While we were busy guessing, everyone got a shock when they turned out to be CBI officials,” said an official from the IIT Bombay.

When contacted Ashok Misra, Director of IIT-B, said he had no information about the development.