PrashantNews
Five persons, one from New Delhi and two from Bhopal, have been arrested in Dehradun for possessing a suspicious radioactive-like device which was manufactured by a central government atomic agency, police said on Friday.
The possibility of terrorist and other links in the matter are also being investigated, top police officials said.
Giving details, SSP Dehradun Ajai Singh said the Rajpur Police Station received information on Thursday through an informer that some suspicious persons were staying in a rented flat in Brook and Woods Society in Rajpur area of Dehradun.
The SSP said the police gathered reports that these people have probably brought some radioactive substance and other material for buying and selling purpose.
On getting the information, a police team immediately reached the flat and found five persons who were having a Radiography Camera Manufactured by the Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai. A black colored box was also found. The five persons told the police that it was a radioactive power article and there was a danger of radiation on opening it.
After finding that there was a possibility of radiation, the police team sealed the room containing the equipment and called the specialized unit of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to investigate further.
On checking the device with a teletector, Alscine Monitor and Mini Rad Bita Internal equipments, the SDRF personnel contacted the concerned central agencies to verify various details about the device. It was found that such devices are manufactured at BARC in Mumbai, which are used to check leakage in medical field and large pipe lines.
BARC in turn informed the Atomic Emergency Response Team from Narora Atomic Power Station in Uttar Pradesh which promptly sent a specialized team to Dehradun. Later, the prima facie it was found that there was no radioactive substance in the said device but some other chemicals were present in it. It was later decided that the said device should be sent to BARC for further investigations.
In relation to the device recovered on the spot, a case was registered against the five persons at Police Station Rajpur under FIR No.: 166/24 Section: 270, 271 and 272 of the Indian Penal Code 2023 and all the said persons were arrested. The case is related to possessing dangerous devices.
The five persons who were arrested are: Sumit Pathak of Agra, Tabrez Alam of Saharanpur, Sarwar Hussain of New Delhi, Zaid Ali of Bhopal and Abhishek Jain of Bhopal.