Purported Buddhist manuscripts that could be almost 1,500 years old were taken out of a trunk opened at Indian Museum on Friday on the orders of Calcutta High Court.

The trunk had been gathering dust in Kalimpong court for eight years since the CBI seized it. 

The division bench of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty had asked the Kalimpong court to hand over the trunk to the museum. But the CBI still had the key.

On Friday, the CBI handed over the key to the museum’s administrative in-charge.

“We have prepared a list of the contents and handed over a copy to the CBI. The museum’s chief curator of archaeology will evaluate the manuscripts’ antiquity on Saturday,” Jayanta Sengupta, museum director, said. “We have some Buddhist manuscripts in our collection, with which we will do a comparison. The report will be placed before our board of trustees.” 
The museum has sought the case history from the CBI to determine the origin of the manuscripts. “It looks to be a Tibetan manuscript and has 320 leaves with decorated wooden covers,” Sengupta said.

The bench had asked the Kalimpong court and the CBI’s zonal director to submit separate reports giving details about the trunk.