Denied access to Toshakhana, House Panel to submit report after May 31

JAMMU: Already irked over inordinate delay in the enquiry about possession of Toshkhana—the royal treasury of Maharaja Hari Singh’s period, and seeking more clarifications with regard to inventories of valuables lying there, the Joint House Committee of state legislature was disappointed once again as the government asserted that it was yet to file an application for obtaining the permission of handling of keys by the Court.

The dilly-delaying from the government has come after the committee had been presented with contradictory statements by officials regarding the whereabouts of keys to the treasure house, which led to prevention of inspection of same by the panel, scheduled at-least twice in recent past.

The government, however, informed the committee that the concerns expressed by it have been discussed with Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, following which the committee decided to submit an interim report regarding the issue after finalizing the course of action in a meeting to be held on May 31, 2018.

Earlier as the meeting commenced the panel under the chairmanship of MLC Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo and consisting of Legislators, Aijaz Ahmed Khan, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Surinder Kumar Choudhary and S Charanjeet Singh, expressed its displeasure over the inordinate delay in the submission of enquiry report about Toshakhana by the concerned authorities.

The Committee desired from Secretary Law to apprise the Committee about the latest status of the Court concerning Toshakhana as discussed in the previous meeting. Secretary, Law/Legislative Council, Abdul Majeed Bhat briefed the Committee about the factual position and other legal aspects of the Toshakhana.

The Secretary informed the Committee that the issue has been discussed with Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and next application for obtaining the permission of handling of keys by the Court is being pursued.

It may be mentioned here that in its last meeting held on April 9, the panel which was to conduct an inspection of the Toshakhana was informed that the keys to it were lying in the custody of the court, contrary to the previous information where it was told that keys were misplaced.

Legislator Ashok Khajuria who had attended the meeting along with Ghulam Nabi Monga and S Charanjeet Singh, told The News Now that breaking the locks to the treasury is the last option, if the authorities are not able to provide them the keys.

“We have been telling them of our desire of visiting the Tosha Khana, but since last two meetings we have been told that key is missing.

“They named one Bashir Patwari to be the custodian of the keys. Now they say the keys are with the court. Now, to break the locks is the only way out to facilitate visit and have an on-spot survey of the assets left inside historically important Tosha Khana,” Khajuria had told The News Now.

The treasure of Dogra rulers hog the limelight in December 2006 when mysterious fire broke out in the Toshakhana inside the historic Mubarak Mandi complex, the royal residence of the maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir from the Dogra dynasty till 1925.

Following the blaze, the valuable articles made up of gold and silver were shifted from the Toshkhana to a strongroom in the Civil Secretariat, Jammu. Only the armory, which the Dogra rulers were using for their as well as security of the citizens of this erstwhile princely state, was left behind in the Toshakhana.

Earlier in the meeting, the committee expressed dissatisfaction over the absence of some senior officers of concerned departments in the meeting and directed them to attend the committee meetings regularly in future.

It may be mentioned that an inquiry was initiated in 2016, to probe the “misplacing” of items from Toshkhana-treasury of Maharaja’s period, following a fire at Mubarak Mandi Historical Complex in Jammu in February 2009.

Pertinently, a fire had broken out on the night of 9 November, 2009 in the old record room of the historic Mubarak Mandi complex, which was then under renovation. Some timber used for renovation work was burnt in the fire, which was doused after half a dozen fire tenders were pressed into service.

However, when BJP- PDP came to power, its legislators accused the then National Conference-Congress government of hatching a conspiracy as regards the fire incident and demanded an inquiry by a House Committee into the "sensitive" matter to "bring out the truth".

On June 16, 2016, the state government had announced a probe by the Joint House Committee so as to also enquire into the misplacing of the items from Toshkhana, following the demand from the lawmakers.