The Uttar Pradesh government today suspended the forensic lab director in Lucknow after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) found that the powdered substance recovered from the state Assembly on July 12 was not “explosives” as claimed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
PTI reported that UP government suspended Forensic Lab director Shiv Bihari Upadhyay for wrong report on recovery of PETN in Assembly.
The action has been taken after the NIA’s report came as a big humiliation for the government as well as the chief minister. The NIA concluded that the substance was just quartz, a material used to make glass and cast metal.
Earlier, Adityanath had claimed that the substance was the high-grade explosive PETN (Penta-erythritol tetranitrate) and described its recovery as a “dangerous terror conspiracy.”
Soon it created a sensation and the state government sent a report to the union Home Ministry saying that the 150 g of powder wrapped in paper was PETN. The state also recommended NIA probe into it.
“This is PETN, this is a dangerous substance. It will be revealed who is behind this. Police verification should be conducted of every security personnel,” Adityanath had said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
Following this, the NIA registered a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The ATS questioned Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Pandey in connection with the case as the powdered substance was found close to his seat. A team of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, visited the Assembly building.
According to a report by Times of India, Aidtyanath had then claimed that the lab in Lucknow, SFSL, had found traces of PETN in the substance.
The UP government had also questioned a lab in Agra, FSL, that had said that it didn't find any trace of explosives in the powder. The state’s principal secretary had then countered those reports claiming that the state did not send any sample to the Agra lab and insisted that the substance indeed was PETN.
SP leader Akhilesh Yadav had then sought to ridicule the government saying that a powder used for polishing furniture was termed as explosive PETN by the state government for preventing the entry of former MLAs to the Vidhan Bhawan.
However, the test result and NIA’s conclusion in the case proved all claims by UP government as wrong.
According to NIA officials quoted by The Hindu report, the polythene bag containing the powder had been lying there for at least five months. They now believe that it would have been left by workers involved in renovation work at the Assembly building and it must have escaped the cleaners’ attention as it was lying under the seat.
According to some reports, the Lucknow lab apparently got it wrong as it tested the substance using an explosive detection kit past its expiry date.