Top Isro scientist says he was poisoned in 2017 in espionage attack

Bengaluru: A top scientist and former director of Space Application Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Tapan Misra alleged that he was poisoned in Bengaluru in 2017.

In the shocking revelation after three years, he said that he was poisoned with arsenic trioxide during a promotion interview in ISRO headquarters.

"But I never thought that I will be at the receiving end of such mystery. I was poisoned with deadly Arsenic Trioxide on 23rd May 2017, during promotion interview from Sci/Eng SF to SG in ISRO HQ at Bangalore. Fatal dose was probably mixed with chutney along with Dosai, in snacks after lunch. What followed was nightmare lasting for almost two years. Severe loss of blood to the tune of 30-40% through anal bleeding. I barely could come back from Bengalore and was rushed to Zydus Cadila hospital in Ahmedabad. It was followed by severe breathing difficulty, unusual skin eruptions and skin shedding, loss of nails on feet and hands, terrible neurological issues due to hypoxia, skeletal pain, unusual sensations, one suspected heart attack and Arsenic depositions and fungal infections on every inch of skin and internal organs. Treatment was received in Zydus Cadila, TMH-Mumbai and AIIMS-Delhi over a period of two years. Famed forensic specialist, Dr. Sudhir Gupta told me that in his whole career, for the first time he was seeing a live specimen of a survivor of assassination attempt with fatal dose of assassination grade molecular As2O3. Otherwise his experience was limited to cadavers." Misra alleged in his long Facebook post, titled 'Long Kept Secret'.

He further said in the post that one of the director colleagues had warned him on June 5, 2017 about a possibility of poison attack on him.

"Probably, I guess, he witnessed poison mixing in my food. On 7th June, MHA security agency personnel met me and alerted me of Arsenic poisoning. I am thankful to them, as their info helped doctors to focus on exact remedy instead of scratching their heads with unusual signatures of my ailment. Security agencies took me to different cities. I am sure, without their intervention, I would have been dead within two to three weeks.

I learnt that this poison is given in molecular level suspension (crystal level is harmless) just after heavy meal. It is a colourless, odourless, tasteless suspension and hence cannot even be suspected. It gets absorbed through stomach during food ingestion, kills RBCs immediately to such large extent that the fine blood vessels are clogged, leading to heart attacks and strokes within two to three hours and the victim can easily be passed of as heart attack death. Fortunately, that day, I did not take lunch.

Misra believed that the motive appeared to be an espionage attack, embedded in the government set up, to remove a scientist with critical contribution of very large military and commercial significance, like expertise in building Synthetic Aperture Radar. He is, however, saddened that the ISRO hierarchy shunned him as pariah and he pleaded with two successive chairmen to help him get justice.