Bengal: Seized substances not radioactive Californium, tests reveal

The substances seized by sleuths of West Bengal CID from two persons near the Kolkata airport last week were not radioactive element Californium as was suspected earlier, tests conducted on them at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre revealed.The seized substances are not Californium.

The substances seized by sleuths of West Bengal CID from two persons near the Kolkata airport last week were not radioactive element Californium as was suspected earlier, tests conducted on them at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre revealed.

''The seized substances are not Californium. The BARC's test report has found them to be something else but not any radioactive material. We have received the test reports,'' a CID official said on Monday.

The persons arrested on August 25 must have spread wrong information about the substances to dupe people, he said.

The CID sleuths are questioning the duo and another person identified as a sharpshooter, whom they have held a day after the seizure of the substances, in order to find out the mystery behind the matter. The duo, during their arrests, had claimed of purchasing the radioactive substances, which weighed over 250 gm in all, from someone in Karnataka.

The two accused have been arrested under the Atomic Energy Act and various other sections of the IPC, the CID officer said.

It was suspected that the materials have been stolen from some laboratory. Californium is mostly used in laboratories as a radioactive element for research.

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