An internal inquiry by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found two of its officers prima facie guilty of not carrying out government instructions, which led to the filing of the controversial affidavit in the Supreme Court on the Sethusamundram project in September.

The two officers—Director (Administration) Chandrasekhar and Assistant Director (Monuments) V Bakshi—had been suspended following the revelation that ASI had failed to carry out some corrections in the affidavit as suggested by the Culture Ministry.

The officers will now be issued a chargesheet and a formal departmental inquiry will be instituted into the matter, a Government source told The Indian Express. “A decision has been taken to initiate administrative action against the two officers,” the source said.

Incidentally, their suspension orders were also revoked on Wednesday and they were asked to resume duties with immediate effect.

“All the papers have already been collected from them and it has been ascertained that they are not in a position to interfere with the inquiry proceedings,” the source said.

The two officers were suspended on September 14, a day after the controversy broke out.

The ASI affidavit had created a major political storm by questioning the existence of Lord Ram while arguing that the Adam’s Bridge in the sea water separating India and Sri Lanka was a natural formation.

The portion in the affidavit that had come under attack said the “contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts, which admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters, or the occurrence of the events, depicted therein”.

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