This story first appeared in The New Indian Express
This newspaper spoke to Mishra on the matter, who called it a “malicious campaign and propaganda” against him by some “vested interests.”
Bala Chauhan
BENGALURU: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has refuted the media reports on alleged controversial and unauthorised movement of classified BrahMos documents outside the premises by a former senior scientist that has sent shock waves on the security of the country’s sensitive and secret defence apparatus and documents.
A section of media has alleged foul play in Brahmos documents quoting a DRDO Vigilance Department report that had reportedly flagged a security breach by former director general (DG), DRDO, Sudhir Mishra for allegedly moving some confidential company documents out of the premises of BrahMos Aerospace when he had superannuated on November 30, 2021 as CEO and managing director (MD), BrahMos Aerospace.
The Directorate of Public Interface (DPI), DRDO in response to a query from this daily acknowledged that “DRDO received complaint against Dr Sudhir Kumar Mishra, ex CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace,” and added that, “based upon the complaint a fact finding inquiry committee was formed by the Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development and Chairman, DRDO. However the committee didn’t find any evidence to back the allegation levied,” the DPI, DRDO stated in a mail to the newspaper.
This newspaper spoke to Mishra on the matter, who called it a “malicious campaign and propaganda” against him by some “vested interests.” According to sources, he had recently applied for a non executive advisory consultancy position (Chair) in the premier defence R&D organisation and was expecting a response.
“I retired more than two years ago from DRDO. If there was any security breach then why was it not flagged and reported earlier?” questioned the former senior scientist.
“As per protocol, I had handed over all the documents including files marked ‘classified’ and ‘confidential’ to my successor in the presence of the company secretary, who is aware of the classified documents and procedures. I have worked with DRDO for 38 years and have ensured that not even a single paper goes out. Is it that easy to move out classified documents from the organisation where for every paper there’s an inventory?”, he questioned.
The top missile scientist said that on the day of his retirement he did carry back his “personal belongings” – the souvenirs given to him during his seven year tenure as DG, DRDO; from 2014 to 2021, the degrees and honours he had obtained and other personal belongings in five to six boxes.
“The allegation that I took away secret documents and files in 40 boxes and returned them almost after a month is mischievous,” said Mishra. He said that the DRDO had recently constituted a fact finding committee to verify the allegations and had asked him to respond to their queries.