It is only after someone told him that it could fetch a lot of money that he tried to pass it off as a “highly radioactive” substance, sources said. In fact, the NIA found that Tahir, who was trying to sell the material, was actually using it as “paper weight” for over eight years and had no clue that it could be uranium. In the first case reported from Mumbai on 5 May, the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) arrested two men - Jigar Jayesh Pandya (27) and Abu Tahir Afzal Choudhary (31) - with over 7 kg of uranium, which they claimed was “highly radioactive” and worth Rs 21 crore.įollowing this, the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency and a fresh FIR under Section 24(1)(a) of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, was filed as it is illegal to possess uranium in India without a license.ĭuring investigation, NIA found that neither was the material “highly radioactive” nor was it worth more than Rs 50,000. ThePrint examined the three cases and this is what we found. The use of such substances is not defined, but it can be used in mining and making nuclear bombs or other explosives. It is one of the heaviest radioactive elements in the periodic table and is a toxic substance. Moreover, the three cases do not have any common link, police sources said.Īccording to investigators, Californium is a “very strong neutron emitter”. In all the cases, Indian agencies found that the accused were trying to “dupe people by passing the material off as radioactive to fetch more money”. The tweet also questioned the “lax arrangements inside India to secure imported SRS (Savannah River Site) material and a possible existence of a black market for such materials”. In the third case reported from Mumbai, the material suspected to be “radioactive uranium” was found to be “uranium in its natural form, which is slightly radioactive but not harmful”, sources told ThePrint.
In two of the three cases referred to in the tweet - reported from West Bengal and Lucknow - investigations revealed that the material, suspected to be Californium, was fake and “not radioactive”.