Three uranium rods seized, eight persons held

Three uranium rods seized, eight persons held
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

KOCHI, NOV 12: Police here have seized three uranium rods and totally eight persons have been arrested in this connection.

Yesterday, police seized a uranium rod, suspected to be highly radioactive, and arrested six persons for possessing it.

Today, two more persons were taken into custody and two more uranium rods were seized from a residential premises at nearby Nettoor.

The rods were recovered from the house of a relative of a government contractor Jose, Asst. Commissioner of Police Thomas Philip said.

All the eight persons will be produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate later this evening. A case under section 14 of the Atomic Energy Act has been registered by the Police.

Officials of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Trombay have been informed about the seizure, police sources said.

One of the arrested persons told the police that he bought the uranium rods in an auction, after the Cobalt Unit of the General Hospital here was dismantled in 1994.

Yesterday, the semi arch rod, 22 cm long and 1.5 cm thick, was seized based on the confession of two persons, who were taken into custody by the Crime Branch Police on Friday in connection with a counterfeit currency case.

The highly radioactive rods have been kept in a leadchamber, they added.