Nagpur: Even as the mystery surrounds the missing Vishnukundan Vakataka-era coins from the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) campus, Vice Chancellor Dr SP Kane now looks forward to police interference to resolve the thread. Dr Kane issued an order to Head of Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Dr Preeti Trivedi, to lodge complaint with the police. However sources informed that the complaint was not yet lodged with police.
Vakataka-era Vishnukundan coins worth crores went missing from Nagpur University’s Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. Strangely, no official in the campus has any idea of how and when it went missing. It came to light in 2013 when the then Head of Department Pradeep Meshram had handed over charge to present HoD Preeti Trivedi but not the coins, which he himself admitted during internal interrogation.
Talking to media, Dr Kane confirmed the development in the case, however he added that he the police want the complaint in Marathi. Compiling the whole matter in Marathi is a difficult task. Probably that would have delayed the lodging of complaint. Meanwhile, Ambazari police, under whose jurisdiction it falls informed that no complaint has been lodged yet.
It may be mentioned that a local daily had published a report quoting an article from a journal, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) also has arrived at the same conclusion that the ‘now missing’ Vakataka-era coins were in the possession of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology. Dr SPKane, Vice-Chancellor of RTMNU, enquired at his level and ascertained that the coins were in the custody of the department.
Sources said that Dr Meshram too admitted that he‘handled’ the coins and he did not give the charge of the same to the present Head. Sources said that Saharkar too had seen the pot with coins. There is still mystery about the coins’ number. Some says there were 214 coins, some say the number was 224.
Some confidently say that there were about 900 coins, which is evident from the photos taken by Khedikar. The coins in her photos were not seen by many of the department. How did the coins vanish and who was responsible for it may come out in due course of enquiry, may be in police investigation.
